


Lost, lost, lost my mind

by Mycroffed



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, I am obsessed with these kinds of AUs, Implied Relationships, M/M, Not necessarily a happy ending, Relationships aren't that important, Titles still suck, Warmage!Caleb, once again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-10-17 16:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17564189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mycroffed/pseuds/Mycroffed
Summary: Nott wakes up on her own and nobody except the party seems to remember Caleb. Will they manage to find the wizard again?Alternate title: Picture perfect victim, overwhelmed and so sadistic





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm postponing watching episode 26, so instead I spent two entire days writing this and hurting myself this way.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Title is taken from Runaway by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The first thing that Nott did upon waking was stretching and yawning widely, as she usually did. She kept her eyes closed, waiting to open them until she heard an amused ‘ _Guten Morgen, mein Liebchen’_ from Caleb, but—

No such thing.

She rolled over quite obnoxiously, hoping to bump into the wizard and snap him out of whatever studious focus he had ended up in, but she couldn’t feel him on the bed at all. Strange. Caleb rarely went downstairs to have breakfast with the others without her. (Especially not after the day they had yesterday. Both of them had gotten fairly close to dying and without Jester—well, Caleb would probably not be there anymore to tell the tale. On days like that, he usually checked up on her, even if it was just with one of his _looks_ before they went downstairs.)

This was when Nott opened her eyes, scanning the room for any sign of her boy, but once again, she didn’t see anything. The chair, over which he usually draped his cloak, was pushed in the corner, far away from the spot where the wizard usually pulled it – “I like to have my things close, just in case. You understand, _ja_?” There were no books in the room either, not on the bedside table, not hidden under the pillow, not fallen between the wall and the bed – none at all.

In fact, there was no sign that Caleb had been there the previous night. Nott wrecked her memory, attempting to remember whether the wizard had decided to stay with Molly for the night, but nothing of the sort popped up as a helpful memory.

_Fuck_.

She didn’t allow herself to panic just yet and instead just pushed herself upright, sitting on the bed, hoping that someone would come in to explain to her what was going on. She sat there for about five minutes – though it seemed much longer – wrecking her brain, trying so _desperately_ when she had last seen her boy – she was absolutely convinced that he had been in the bed next to her the previous night and that she had curled up on him in the middle of the night, when he had started to make those little noises of distress that announced the presence of a nightmare. She would have sat there for much longer if someone hadn’t knocked on the door, forcing her on her feet to open it.

“Yes?”

It was Molly who stood in front of her, a tiny little smirk around his lips – something that was just _so Mollymauk_ that Nott didn’t even register it as a smirk anymore, but his usual smile that announced a bigger one. “Are you and Caleb coming down already or will we have to wait for the pair of you until lunchtime?” He attempted to glance past her, past the small goblin who was trying to keep the door as shut as possible in case that it was just her who was overreacting to the lack of books. (It was clear that he was attempting to catch a glance of Caleb, maybe even exchange eye contact before he returned downstairs.)

“Caleb?” Nott’s voice trembled as she finally allowed that feeling of worry that had been settling in her stomach to blossom into something more, something stronger. At least that told her that her boy hadn’t been hiding with Molly or any of the others. The purple tiefling had been sent up by them – presumable Fjord – to get them so they could start and face whatever the day would bring for the seven of them.

“You know who he is, Nott. Wizard, ginger, a little smelly around the edges, but still one of your best friends. _Your boy_ you called him, when Fjord and I caught you stealing his letter of recommendation for him.” The grin that had been announced by that smirk didn’t entirely break through on his face, but the tiefling’s eyes said that he got that Nott was playing a joke, that this was merely something to laugh at later. “He went to bed about twelve hours ago, exhausted, but by now he should be awake.” Molly attempted to push the door a little further open, so he could see the entire room. “Mr. Caleb, it’s time to wake up, my dear.”

He hadn’t finished his last endearment as Nott stepped aside to fully allow him to see the room. She could see the exact moment in his eyes that he realised that she hadn’t been playing a joke, that their wizard truly wasn’t among them anymore. She watched as his eyes darted to the same places that hers had checked for signs of him.

His gaze snapped back to the small goblin, the contentment and amusement completely gone as he focussed back on her. “Nott, please tell me you still remember Caleb. You still know who he is, right?”

“Of course I know who he is!” Nott huffed, clearly offended by the suggestion that she had forgotten the most important person in her life, currently. Her golden eyes lit up with a mix of anger towards Molly and fear for Caleb as she disappeared into the room, grabbed her flask, and took a _big_ sip. “I just don’t know _where_ he is.”

“We should grab the others and ask if they’ve seen him. If he’s run off—” Before Molly could even finish that sentence, the small goblin had jumped up and grabbed him by the collar – how she had done that, she didn’t even know herself.

“He wouldn’t.” She hissed, baring her teeth at him. “Not without taking me along with him.”

A voice in the back of her mind told her that she was overreacting, that this was just the worry speaking, but somehow she felt like he deserved it and so much more, merely for suggesting that Caleb had left the group, who he had started to care about, without taking _her._

Molly held up his hands, which was enough to convince Nott to let go of him, though she kept an eye on him. She didn’t trust him. (She had tolerated him, yes, for Caleb, but she knew that there was something _off_ about him, more than just the Lucien thing that he had told them about. She just didn’t quite know what yet.) “Why don’t we go downstairs, talk to the others and figure out whether they know something? Maybe Jester can send him a message, find out why he’s gone, all of a sudden.”

_Jester_.

Nott had completely forgotten that she and Caleb weren’t the only ones who could do magic, but now that she was reminded by Molly, that worry seemed to fade to the background just a little bit. They would ask her to send him a message, she would tell him to come back and soon, the seven of them would be complete again.

She nodded weakly. “That’s a good idea.” She said, looking apologetically to him. “I’m sorry I hissed at you.”

Molly’s smile returned as he ruffled her hair in an attempt to calm her down again. “I would have done the exact same if Yasha were missing, Nott. You don’t need to apologise.”

_Missing_. He actually used the word _missing_. Was that what Caleb was now? A new mission, someone they needed to find before they could move on? It seemed as if the tiefling realised the mistake that he had made, because he sighed softly and apologised quietly.

“I shouldn’t have used that word.”

“No, no, it’s what he is!” Nott’s nerves were getting the better of her and she was so tempted to once again take a sip of her flask in an attempt to get her hands to stop trembling. “He’s currently missing, but we’ll find him again, we’ll find him again as fast as we can, with the help of Jester and Yasha and Fjord and Beau.”

“Exactly.” Molly nodded, glanced once more around the room, before making his way out of the room. Nott followed him and pulled the door shut behind the two of them. They stood there for a few seconds, quietly, before making their way down the stairs in silence.

The rest of the Mighty Nein was sitting around a round table – Nott couldn’t help but think of the story of a king and his wizard and his twelve knights that Caleb had told her one evening in the forest, when they had somehow succeeded to catch a rabbit with a trap that she had made – and glanced up as the two of them arrived. Jester grinned at Nott, but as she saw the worry that was presumably written all over the goblin’s face, it disappeared.

“Hey Nott!” She waved both her and Molly over, gesturing at the three empty chairs right next to her. “Where’s _Cay_ -leb? Is he still asleep?”

The other members of the gang glanced up, a frown settling on Fjord’s face. Yasha’s attention shifted from Beau to Molly behind Nott and while the goblin couldn’t see the other’s face, he could see the reaction on the aasimar’s face clear as day. First, a flash of disbelief, then one of worry and lastly of all, confusion.

Nott glanced away, from both her as well as Jester, as she shook her head. “I don’t know where Caleb is. He wasn’t there when I woke up.”

“What do you mean, he wasn’t there when you woke up?” Fjord’s drawl was stronger than usual, but Nott decided that that was probably because he was just as worried as she was. “The two of you went to bed around the same time last night.”

“I know and I tried to think whether he was… For a moment, I thought that he might have spent the night with Molly, but then Molly came to—came to knock on the door, so he can’t have, but there’s no sign that he was ever there and I don’t know where he is—”

The blood hunter placed his hand on the goblin’s shoulder, attempting to calm her down and maybe even stop her from rambling. “There weren’t even any books in the room.” He said, his voice grave with seriousness. “No books at _all_.”

“Did he run off or something?” Beau asked, before the shake of Molly’s head registered with her, but it was too late already. Nott launched herself at the monk, hissing just as loudly as she had when Molly had suggested the same thing.

“He wouldn’t have left without me!” She practically roared and everyone in the pub glanced at their table. The owner of the tavern, Lauren, glanced over at them, before continuing with her tasks. Nott, finally realising that she may have been a little too loud, cleared her throat and stepped away from Beau. “Sorry, but he just wouldn’t have…”

“You’re right.” Jester agreed with Nott, licking her lips nervously as her mind seemed to race with the possibilities of what may have happened.

It was Fjord, however, spoke up instead of the blue-skinned tiefling. “Did he say anything special last night before he went to bed? Any sign that something was wrong?”

Once again, Nott shook her head. “I think something’s not right, Fjord.” She said quietly, as if admitting it would make it true. She suddenly seemed so much smaller under the weight of the world that threatened to overwhelm her. “He wouldn’t have left, not like that… He would’ve—he would’ve… he would have at least mentioned something to me.”

“Perhaps we should ask Lauren whether she saw something?” Yasha offered the first actual sensible suggestion since Nott and Molly had arrived downstairs. “Maybe she knows something that we don’t.”

The rest of the party seemed to agree with that, so they tasked Fjord, the most charming out of all of them, to go and talk to the barkeeper. The half-orc walked over with a gentle smile around his lips as he leaned against the bar.

“Hey there, Lauren.” He said, causing her to glance up just in time to see Nott , who was rushing over to stand right next to Fjord. “We’ve got a little bit of a problem. Y’see, one of our friends has gone missin’ and we wonder if you may have seen anythin’ suspicious tonight?”

Lauren’s eyes never left Nott, even as she answered the half-orc’s question. “Nothin’ suspicious. Who’s this friend you’re talkin’ about? ‘s far as I know, you are all complete.”

This was when Nott spoke up, even though the party had agreed that only Fjord would speak to her. She simply couldn’t hold herself back. “We’re missing Caleb. He’s a wizard with ginger hair and he smells a little sometimes? He also looks like he hasn’t taken a bath in like… weeks?”

The bartender narrowed her eyes at the goblin, but she didn’t address her. Instead, she once again turned her attention to Fjord – “ _Rude_.” – as she answered the question. “Only wizard I know about is called Zook and they’re sitting over there.” She gestured at the small gnome who was sitting in the corner, nursing a cup of coffee and looking absolutely done with the world. Even their little flower crown seemed to be wilting.

“Are you sure?” Fjord asked, though he tried to say it in a way that wouldn’t offend her. “Jester, one of our companions, can draw a picture of him as reference, if you’d like.”

She rolled her eyes at Fjord – even though she tried to hide it – and shrugged. “Do whatever you want. Can I get back to work now?”

A little surprised by Lauren’s rudeness, Fjord knew better than to tell her off, so he simply smiled and then returned to the table, where the four remaining members of the Mighty Nein were looking up at him expectantly. (Nott glared at the barkeeper for a few more seconds before following the half-orc to the others, muttering the few German curse words that she had learned from Caleb under her breath.)

“She has no idea who we’re talkin’ about.” Fjord sighed softly as he sat down around the table. “It sounds very much as if Caleb has never been with us.”

“But why do I remember him, then?” Nott piped up as she jumped onto her chair, quickly getting comfortable and grabbing her flask. She needed another drink if she wanted to get through this day with her boy missing. “We _all_ remember him. It’s not just me.”

“Would he have run and made everyone forget?” Before Nott could even pounce on Yasha – despite being a little bit scared of her still, the size different was quite extreme, after all – she said something else. “What if someone took him and made everyone else forget?”

“Then why exactly would they allow _us_ to remember?” Beau wondered, eyeing Nott carefully. This subject was a little sensitive for her, especially because they all knew that it would be possible that Caleb had simply let his social anxiety get the better of him. “It would make more sense if they made _us_ forget and allowed the rest of the tavern to remember.”

Jester, who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time, leaned a little closer to tap Fjord on the shoulder. As the half-orc glanced over – and Nott tried to look at her as well, but she was holding whatever paper she had drawn on just a little bit too far for her to see – she quickly explained what she was showing him. “You said I should do a drawing, so I thought we could make a little ‘missing’ poster and maybe people could help us find him. Someone must remember him, it’s impossible the entire city forgot him, right?”

“What a great idea, Jess.” Fjord beamed at her as he turned around the little leaflet that Jester had made to show the other. It was very much like a missing poster someone would make of their pet, but instead of a picture of a dog or cat, it was Caleb, smiling, with some flowers in his hair. Jester had even added some colour for his eyes and his hair, which made Nott smile a little. “How many more of these can you make?”

“Well, I would need some more paper, but as many as we need.” She beamed at the half-orc, glad that she could help with _something_. “We can go to Pumat Sol to buy some!”

Fjord glanced around the table, looking at the worried faces from everyone else – including Nott’s – and nodded at the blue-skinned cleric. “In the meantime, we can ask around a little. Maybe we’ll bump into someone who knows something about him.”

With that, the party finished their breakfast – Nott ate even faster than usual – and left the Leaky Tap, some hope in their hearts that they still had a proper chance of finding their friend.

 

\--~--

 

Pumat Sol – one of them, at least – wasn’t very helpful. He sold them paper, of course, enough for Jester to make about a dozen of flyers for Caleb, but he claimed that it would be disrespectful towards his clients’ privacy if he went about telling others who he had sold his wares to. Molly definitely had a feeling that the firbolg knew more than he let on, but using a blood curse to get it out of him? That seemed like a step too far, even for him, even with the amount of worry that was coursing through his veins. Ever since he had knocked on Nott’s door that morning, he had a bad feeling, something that he just couldn’t let go, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this worried for anyone besides Yasha, when she was off to one of her – y’know what? He wasn’t exactly sure what it was she did when she wasn’t with the group. But then again, it didn’t really matter. She always came back and that was what counted. Caleb, on the other hand, had been more than clear on other occasions that he didn’t trust anyone except Nott and that he would run if it ever became too much for him. It was a fair thought that the entire party at some point had had, despite the fact that Nott practically exploded when it was suggested. (That goblin really was more powerful than she seemed, he had to give her that.)

While there was a big chance that Caleb had simply run, there was something that told Molly that that wasn’t what had happened. Besides, why would he? He had been acting as if he trusted them, maybe even _cared_ about them and it just didn’t make sense at all.

Once they left the Invulnerable Vagrant, the party seemed to have lost that little spark of hope that they had had when they left the tavern. Especially Nott looked defeated, as if they had already lost. Molly couldn’t have that, not in the least, so he walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“We will find him.” He said, quietly, but still as supportive as he could manage. “He must still be somewhere in this madhouse of a city and we will find him. I promise you that, Nott.”

The small goblin looked up at him, her yellow eyes bright and shiny with tears. “What if we don’t? What if—what if something happened to him and nobody remembers? What if something took him and—and—and—He can’t be gone, Molly. He was the only one—”

With fast movement, he scooped her up in his arms and pulled her close for a hug. “We will still find him. Jester is going to make some more missing posters and we will hang those around town. Someone will tell us what happened and if necessary, we’ll go to the King’s Hall and issue a reward for anyone who can get us some information. Don’t give up hope yet.”

That plan was just as much to comfort Nott as well as himself. It affected the small goblin rogue much more, since she regarded Caleb as a son rather than a friend, but that didn’t mean that this disappearance wasn’t a heavy burden on everyone.

“Thank you, Molly.” She whispered, eventually, right before burying her face into his shoulder. He felt the wetness leaking through his cloak before he realised that those small shakes wasn’t her breathing – she was crying. He had never seen her cry before.

While with others, he would have pointed it out and made fun of them, he wouldn’t with Nott, not this time around. He wasn’t _that_ insensitive. He followed the rest of the party to the Leaky Tap once again, but he made sure to keep some distance from them, so that nobody would actually notice the fact that the little goblin was crying her heart out.

By the time they had arrived and had settled around their previous table, Nott had drifted off to sleep – the poor girl had been exhausted by everything that had happened since that morning – so Molly simply held her. This got him a curious look from Yasha, a bit of a smirk from Beau and an approving smile from Fjord. Jester was the only one who didn’t notice, since she was too focussed on making the flyers to hang up in town.

It took her about an hour – he wasn’t entirely sure, Caleb would’ve known – to finish about ten posters, which was quite impressive. Beau was itching to go out again – and to be fair, so was he – so they decided to pick up a couple and start asking questions around town. They would go to the King’s Hall first, just like he had suggested to Nott. Before they left, however, Molly woke up said rogue to see if she wanted to come with them, but he just couldn’t manage to get her to stir.

For a moment, he considered giving her to Fjord, but the way the half-orc held out his arms to take her from him made him reconsider immediately. Instead, he placed her onto the bench next to Yasha, where she curled up with her head on the aasimar’s leg. After pressing a soft kiss to her forehead – “G’night, Caleb.” – he turned to Beau and nodded, pretending very much that his heart wasn’t breaking.

They were ready to go.

 

\--~--

 

The walk over to the King’s Hall was nerve wrecking. Molly didn’t talk a lot and honestly, Beau didn’t want to either. She had tried her best to convince herself that she didn’t care, especially not about the purple-skinned tiefling who was walking next to her, nor the wizard, but the fact that her heart was beating wildly in her chest with nerves told her otherwise.  She wanted to see the wizard as fast as she could, just so that everyone would stop being so tense all the time.

Who knew that one missing member would mess up the entire party this much?

“Damnit!” Halfway through the walk, Molly seemed to curse under his breath and Beau was more than happy to let him distract her.

“What? What did you do now?” She glanced up at him, her eyes narrowed, waiting for him to tell her that this was all one big elaborate prank that he, Nott and Caleb had set up, but no, nothing of the sort.

“I had promised Nott that I would ask Jester to send Caleb a message. I completely forgot.” The blood hunter sighed deeply, before glancing at her with an apologetic smile. “What a mess, huh? Do you have any suspicions on what might be going on?”

The monk shrugged. “I’m still not entirely sure that this isn’t some prank. But then again, Caleb wouldn’t have gone so far as to get Pumat involved.”

“Caleb would never let Nott go through something like that.” Molly said, with absolute determination.

“Who says she’s not in on it?” What did Molly know? she wondered. What wasn’t he telling her?

“She’s not.” The tiefling didn’t elaborate further and Beau was in no mood to push him any further. Fine, if he wanted to be all mysterious and didn’t want to tell her what the hell was going on, then so be it. She would just leave him be, then, let him walk in silence.

By the time they arrived at the King’s Hall, it was past noon and her stomach was grumbling loudly. Molly suggested to get something to eat before they actually talked to someone, but Beau shrugged that off. She could deal with some hunger a little hunger. (Which was exactly what she told him.) And just like that, they made their way over to the Herald’s desk. Beau had completely forgotten what his name was, but apparently Molly had a better memory for names than she did.

“Voloshin.” The tiefling purred and smiled at the other. “We have a question for you. Who do we need to talk to in order to set up a request for information?”

The man raised an eyebrow at Molly, but signed deeply. “You’d have to talk to me, but whether I will allow it depends on who or what that information is about.”

Beau stepped closer, attempting to smile at the other, but as that turned into more of a grimace than anything else, she instantly dropped that. It just didn’t feel right. “We are wondering whether anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of Caleb Widogast. He was with us in the Leaky Tap last night, but he has disappeared this morning.”

If possible at all, that eyebrow went up even further as Voloshin’s attention turned from Molly to her. “While I highly doubt that he would have spent even a single second with you two, why would you need information on Lieutenant Widogast?”

_Lieutenant Widogast?_

When had Caleb joined the military? Why would he be part of that without telling any of them anything? Molly seemed just as flabbergasted as she was, but she seemed to recover a little faster than the tiefling next to her. “What are you talking about? When did he join? Where would we be able to see him?”

“I don’t have a roster of everyone in the military, contrary to popular belief.” Voloshin sighed, clearly exasperated with the both of them. He didn’t seem likely to allow the two of them to place their message now, but she was determined to keep trying. “I barely even know who stands guard outside this bloody hall to start with.”

“So I take it this is a question you can’t answer?” Beau wondered out loud, before grabbing Molly’s arm. “Well, at least we know that he’s somewhere in the city now. Come on, Molly, let’s stop annoying this hard working gentleman and get back to the others. We’ve got information to share.”

The other tiefling, finally recovering from that slice of information, blinked a few times before he nodded. “Let’s go.”

Voloshin seemed fairly grateful to be allowed to work on his work without any further disturbances. Beau glanced back once more – the other human was already bent over his paperwork again, ignoring both of them as they made their way back to the Leaky Tap with their new slice of information.

 

\--~--

 

When Nott woke up again, she was curled up against Yasha with her arm gently wrapped around her, as if to protect her from the world. For a moment, she was convinced that she was curled up against Caleb, that everything was alright again, but as soon as she opened her eyes, she realised that everything was still completely different. A soft groan escaped her and Yasha instantly turned her attention to her.

“Are you okay?” She asked, her voice soft and in almost the same tone as Caleb used sometimes. “How are you feeling?”

Nott, feeling like she would cry again, merely because of the way that Yasha had addressed her, simply shrugged. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to talk about how her heart ached with missing Caleb, about how her stomach churned every time she thought about the wizard. All she wanted was some news about where he could possibly be.

“I understand.” Yasha whispered and then she remained quiet, gently running her hand through the goblin’s greasy hair. Comforted by the familiar gesture, Nott closed her eyes once again, hoping to fall asleep and avoid that world of hurt that was waiting for her whenever she opened her eyes.

When she did so, however, the door to the pub flew open and slammed against the wall besides it, causing everyone – including Nott, who jerked up and stared at whoever it was with wide eyes, just in case it was Caleb – to turn their attention there. The rogue tried to ignore the disappointment that coursed through her as she realised it was only Beau and Molly, especially as she saw the excitement on their faces.

“Did you find him?” She asked, her voice a little louder than she had expected it to be.

“No, but—” Beau started, but before she could even properly begin her sentence, Molly took over, with the widest smile around his lips.

“He’s in the city! He joined the military, apparently, and is now known as Lieutenant Widogast around here. Do you know what that means?”

“We have a chance at finding him.” Fjord said, clearly as delighted as Molly was. They had hope again, there was a chance that they could find their friend and bring him back—well, maybe not home, but maybe they would be able to get him to stay this time.

The only one who wasn’t joining in with the smiling was Nott. Yasha was the first one who realised that something was wrong, that there must be a reason as to why the small goblin wasn’t celebrating with the rest of them. “Nott, what’s going on?” She asked, her grin slowly replaced by a frown.

“He’s not… I think I know what happened.” That was enough to get the attention of the entire group and while she hated to wipe those smiles off everyone’s faces with her news, at least they now had an idea of what was going on. Hopefully. “Ikithon—” She glanced at Beau, because out of everyone, she was the only one who knew. “—He must have found us and, I don’t know, cast a spell or something, because—because this sounds like Caleb’s worst nightmare, but I don’t—I don’t know why we are here. Maybe we were fighting him and he’s trying to stop us by doing this, but—”

“Oh no…” Beau seemed to have caught up and her smile is the first to go. “Nott, we’ve gotta find him. We can’t let him live through a second longer of this shit, we can’t—”

“We seemed to have missed somethin’.” Fjord said, confusion spread all over his face as he wondered why being in the military would be Caleb’s nightmare to start with. To him, it sounded like an honourable day’s work.

“Oh, uh—” Beau started, glancing at Nott, but neither of them seemed very sure about whether this was their place to say anything about it, but at the same time—

“Trent Ikithon—we met him at the party after the victory pit a few days back—he’s not… he’s not a good guy.” The monk eventually settled on. Her eyes didn’t leave Nott’s, since she needed her support, needed her to say what was okay and what wasn’t. After all, the goblin was Caleb’s best friend.

“He was Caleb’s teacher when he was at—at school. But he wasn’t a very good guy and he punished Caleb and his friends and—” This was so difficult, what should she tell them, what should she keep secret, she didn’t know, she didn’t know, she didn’t _know_. “—Uh… He basically put some fake memories in Caleb’s head and made him believe that his parents were against the empire and Caleb burned their house with them inside, but you can’t tell him that you know, because he wouldn’t—he only told Beau and I to get into the library, and—and—”

That was when Nott realised that everyone was staring at her and was completely silent. Not a word was said between all of them, they simply had that look in their eyes that expressed how sorry they were that their wizard had had to go through that.

“Wow, I never thought—That explains the fire thing so much more now.” Molly was the first one who spoke, but it wasn’t much more than a whisper. The others agreed quietly with him, but didn’t say any of their own opinions. After all, this was quite the news that Nott had dropped in their laps and they were still trying to wrap their minds around it.

“We’ve got to try and get him back.” Nott said, more determined than before, because they knew what had happened, they knew where Caleb was, all they had to do was actually find him. They had a goal now, something they could plan and work on in order to find their friend once again.

_Caleb will be back soon,_ she thought. _My boy will be safe again._

\--~--

Several days passed before they even had the slightest clue where they would be able to find Caleb. Nott had been sneaking out onto the rooftops to listen to the guards chatter about things. Sometimes she was accompanied by others – Beau was particularly good at being quiet as well as Jester, but the blue-skinned cleric had trouble staying silent for a long time, so when she offered, Nott usually said something about wanting to be alone. Eventually, Jester stopped offering, which didn’t make Nott feel that much better. (She attempted to make up for it by listening to her stories about the Traveller and her mother and asking about her paintings.)

It wasn’t until five days after her realisation that she caught a casual conversation between two of the Crown’s Guard standing next to the tavern and while she wasn’t able to hear everything, it was enough for her to make sense of the conversation.

“I’m on guard duty in the dungeons again tomorrow.” The one appeared to be a half-elf, but Nott wasn’t entirely sure. There seemed to be a few things that were off about the way they looked, but since the goblin didn’t know them, she decided that she wasn’t going to pick apart the other’s looks.

“You’re lucky. I have to work with that trio again, those magic freaks? Every time I am on duty with them, they get up to some shit that makes me real uncomfortable.” The other guard was a half-orc, much like Fjord, but he appeared to be a little taller than the warlock that she was so familiar with. “Last time, they got one of the prisoners and—”

A rather loud cart moved through the street and temporarily prevented Nott from hearing anything, but she was fairly sure that she wouldn’t want to know what Caleb had done to those prisoners anyway. She suspected something ad it wasn’t pretty, not in the least.

“—By the time they brought him back, he was barely alive. The best clerics had to cast multiple spells to bring him back to at least a state where he could answer more questions. The skin of his right hand, however, completely lost. It was burnt away, but I don’t know whether it was acid or fire that had done it.”

“I bet it was that ginger freak.” The half-elf huffed at the other’s commentary. “The one who’s obsessed with fire? He sounds like someone who would burn off people’s skin in order to get answers out of them.”

“I’m suddenly very glad that I do not have to work for the Hall of Erudition tomorrow. Man, I don’t know how you do it.”

It was at this point that Nott decided that she had heard enough, that more would either get her more upset or ready to hurl herself at those guards. She didn’t want to get into trouble and force the rest of the gang to get her out of prison for assaulting a guard. That would be incredibly counterproductive, she decided.

There was a small ‘thud’ as she landed off the roof – “What was that?” The half-elf wondered out loud. – but Nott was already gone by the time that either of the guards could even begin to think about going to check out what that noise was exactly. She didn’t stop running until she reached the tavern and had explained everything she had heard to everyone.

 

\--~--

 

It took them a full week to settle on a plan. Not only did they have to gather intel on when which guards were patrolling – another few days spent on top of various roofs – but they also had to decide on what they should do once they got in. They couldn’t risk getting as far as Ikithon’s office, somehow, and then blow it because they weren’t prepared for a fight. (She felt like she had to mentally remind her multiple times that they may have to harm Caleb, that they may have to kill him, but she just couldn’t—no matter how many times that she told herself that this was just a dream, that she wouldn’t _actually_ be hurting her boy, she was fairly sure that she wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on him.)

Every time she came back to the tavern, she knew that she had done well, that she had helped the team, but she was dreading the day that their plan would actually be put into action. One of the evenings, when she was particularly drunk, she made her way over to Yasha, grateful for once to have found the one group member who didn’t say that much, usually.

However, as she sipped her flask once again, there was a little disapproving noise coming from the assimar. Nott turned towards her, the world spinning more than usual as she squinted at her. “You don’t get to say anything.”

“I am merely… worried. Nott, you have been drinking a lot the last few days.” Yasha glanced at Molly, who wasn’t sitting that much further from the two of them. Nott wasn’t entirely sure, but she was fairly sure that the blood hunter was nodding, encouraging Yasha to go on. The rogue felt betrayed and stuck her tongue out at him in order to express that.

“I am fine. It is only for a few days, until Caleb is back.” She attempted to wave the aasimar’s worries away, but she knew that it was the entire party who probably told her to talk to her. “Once we have Caleb, I will stop again, I just—” She needed it. She needed it if she wanted to remain calm without her boy’s nonchalant touches to ground her in reality whenever it became too much for her. “It doesn’t matter, Yasha.”

The other opened her mouth to tell Nott that it _did_ matter, the goblin could see it in her eyes, but as she glared at her, she was suddenly unable to utter even a single word. With a triumphant little smile, the rogue made her way back upstairs, to her room, where she curled up on Caleb’s bed in the hope of feeling a little closer to him. (She had been sleeping in that bed for so long that it didn’t smell like him anymore. Or maybe it never smelled like him to begin with, since he hadn’t actually been there, not in this world. Maybe she had just gotten a stinky bed, which was something she should complain about at some point, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do that.)

Once she was curled up in the bed, she buried her face in the pillow and allowed herself to cry for the first time in what felt like forever – but in reality, it had only been since that first day that Caleb had been missing, now almost two weeks back. She tried to remain quiet, but she was fairly sure that she failed, because a few minutes in, someone walked into the room without knocking. She couldn’t get her eyes to focus as she looked up – too many _goddamn tears –_ but she could swear that it was Caleb who was standing in front of her.

“C-C-Caleb…” She stuttered, before launching herself to cling to him, not caring that there was a voice at the back of her head telling her that it wasn’t possible, that Caleb was someplace else, probably torturing people.

“Shh.” The wizard said quietly – he even _sounded_ like Caleb, so it must be him, she decided – as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. “ _Ich bin wieder da_ , _mein Liebchen._ I am back. No need to worry anymore.”

Nott once again started sobbing, violently, as she attempted to tell her friend what had been going on, what they were going to do to get him out. She promised him that she would do anything and everything they could before she jerked up a little too violently and ended up having to rush to the nearest bucket to barf. (Luckily, Caleb seemed to have provided one for her without even having to ask.)

She sent him a little smile once most of the alcohol seemed to be out of her system – Caleb had been rubbing her back the entire time – and she once again curled up right next to Caleb, clinging to him as much as she could, not caring that he smelled more like sea water than usual.

 

\--~--

 

When Fjord had cast Disguise Self on himself and assumed Caleb’s form, he had never thought that he would end up with a crying, barfing Nott on his hands.

He didn’t regret doing it for even a single second.

 

\--~--

 

The next morning, Nott quietly thanked Fjord before eating only a few slices of bacon, because that day was The Day. They were going to try and find Caleb and attempt to snap him out of whatever state that Ikithon had managed to get him in. Nott was absolutely sure that it would all go to plan, since they had carefully taken a lot of time to figure out everything that could possibly go wrong.

The second that all of them had finished eating, Nott was on her feet, ready to go. She had checked and double checked whether she had all of her weapons and as many bolts as she could carry. Ikithon would get all of them to the face without even a moment’s hesitation if she could. The glances she got from the other party members – especially Jester, who seemed to be taking this pretty serious as well – told her that they approved of that idea.

“Are you ready?” Molly asked nobody in particular, but his smile told everyone that he was nervous, that he hoped that everything would go exactly as planned. (Nott didn’t even dare to hope that. She knew it would go down the trash soon enough.)

However, everyone seemed to either nod or agree verbally, except the goblin herself. She just wasn’t entirely sure. “Nott?” He asked, pressing her for an answer. “We’re going to get Caleb back. Hopefully, by tonight, he’ll be with us again.”

“Hopefully.” She echoed, forcing a smile around her lips. She could do with a little bit of hope at this point.

Nott took one deep breath, glanced around at everyone – who seemed to be waiting for her cue – nodded once, mostly to herself, and walked out of the door.

 

\--~--

 

Getting into the Tri-Spire was easy enough. The guards there knew them by now and since they were still the co-winners of the victory pit, they had free reign to go pretty much everywhere they wanted in that city. Nott sent a smile to the one she remembered to have kicked Frumpkin into the fey world and made it just a little bit toothier than necessary.  It made her feel a little better.

Making their way over to the Hall of Erudition wasn’t that hard either, since the building was visible from nearly everywhere within the Tri-Spire area. It was _getting in_ that was the difficult part, but for that, they had a plan. Fjord and Jester disguised themselves as guards and with the disguise kit that Molly had brought, they managed to make him look less… _Mollymauk._ It was the best that they could possibly do and it would have to work if the six of them wanted to get in.

Nott herself used her disguising spell to make her look like a halfling girl, like she had so many times before, so that only left Beau and Yasha.

“You should maybe go on without us, guys. It’s too much effort to sneak us in.” Yasha said, glancing at Beau and the other two who couldn’t manage to get a good guard disguise going.

“No, no! We won’t leave anyone behind, we’ll go according to plan. We’ll take over guard duty a little early and then _allow_ all of you entrance without anyone noticing.” Fjord stated once again, for the twentieth time since they had left the pub. “It is the easiest part and if we are going to start and compromise on this, then what will we do later on, when we need you guys? No, we ain’t leavin’ you behind.”

With those words, Fjord nodded to Jester and the both of them made their way over towards the two guards standing next to the entrance of the Hall. Nott couldn’t exactly hear them, but she stared quite intently, almost as if that would help her _actually_ hear what was being said. It took the guards about a minute to be convinced that their two party members were legit guards – it was the longest minute of Nott’s life – but eventually they sent the two of them the smallest of smiles and left to enjoy their lunch early.

Nott quickly sent Fjord a message, in order not to surprise him. “We’re going to make our way over now, Fjord, okay? You can reply to this message.”

The goblin was a hundred percent sure that she could see the smallest of smirks around the half-orc’s lips, but she was too far away to make absolutely sure. “A’right, Nott. We’re read—hold on a minute, someone’s callin’ out to us.”

And true enough, a young woman – around the same age as Caleb was, so she may not be _that_ young anymore – appeared in the entrance, her brown hair pulled back in a tight bun. Even from the other side of the square, Nott could make out what she was saying. “Are you _still_ not coming? I told you that I needed your help half an hour ago, yet here you still are, cosying up with your fellow guards woman, as if you have nothing better to do.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” Fjord make sure to speak loud enough – or maybe the spell was still active. “Where do you need me, ma’am?”

“Upstairs. Ikithon is expecting guests and we need to get ready.” She gestured at Jester to turn the other way, to focus on the square rather than on the conversation that she was having with Fjord. After that, she disappeared back inside, Fjord sheepishly following behind her.

Well, that was how far the plan got.

Glancing back at Beau, Yasha and Molly, she swallowed tightly. “We’re still going in.” She whispered, before going ahead as planned. If they hurried, they might be able to track Fjord and get to Ikithon much faster.

The others simply nodded and followed her example. As they reached Jester, they could see just how nervous she was. “They took Fjord!” She stage whispered as they passed, before turning to follow them. “We’ve got to get Fjord back, we can’t let him fall in the hands of this asshole!”

“ _Arschloch_.” Nott said quietly, a smirk around her lips. “We’ll get him, Jester. Don’t worry.”

Beau glanced around once, twice, decided the coast was clear and then made her way inside, followed by the rest of the gang. The entrance way that they walked into was absolutely gorgeous. The high ceiling allowed for a lot of natural light to filter through and as the sun was about to reach its highest point in the sky, it was very bright inside. This also meant that they managed to catch a glimpse of Fjord’s cape at the other side of the Hall, as he walked through one of the doors there.

Nott immediately took off running, trying to reach it as fast as she could in order not to lose him. The others took off after her – maybe she should have communicated first – but they were a few feet behind. Nobody seemed to be wondering why a gang of five people suddenly started running, which was probably to their advantage. As the goblin skidded around the corner, she could still see that cloak, not too far from them, once again turning a corner.

That was how they made their way to the big guy’s office, chasing cloaks and voices, attempting to be as quiet as they possibly could. Once they had reached their destination, however, Nott stopped them for a moment. “We might have to hurt Caleb.”

“We won’t, though.” Jester said, not as cheerful as she usually was, since her worry for Fjord was getting rather strong and omnipresent. “We will only hurt Ikithon and once he’s dead we will be able to get to Caleb and snap him out of it.” She sent Nott a small smile, which did nothing to conceal her nerves. “Don’t worry, Nott, everything is going to turn out just fine!”

She nodded once, twice and opened the door, bracing herself for the final fight, to get back their friend.

“Ah, our guests have finally arrived.” A low baritone voice echoed through the room, but it was impossible for Nott to pinpoint the exact location of the source. She glanced around the room – for an office, this one was absolutely _massive_ – and realised that there was nothing to hide behind, there was no cover anyone, so sneaking up on just about anyone would be difficult.

She cursed under her breath, before glancing at the others, who seemed just as nervous as she was about this entire scenario.

“We’ve come to get our friend!” Nott called out even though her voice didn’t sound half as sure of itself as the other’s did. “You can either let him go or die trying to protect him.”

“You seem awfully sure of yourself. You must be Nott the Brave. I can see where you got that name now, young lady.” Ikithon stepped out of the corners of the room, where he had been hidden in the shadows. His long, grey beard floated in the air behind him, almost as if there was an invisible breeze moving it as he stepped into the light. “Feel free to try.”

Nott readied her crossbow and aimed it in Ikithon’s general direction when she noticed some blurry movement out of the corners of her eyes. Beau, having shed her cloak which had meant to provide her with _some_ coverage, had launched herself at that same lady who had guided Fjord away earlier. While she wasn’t sure why exactly the monk had done that, she decided that it didn’t matter, that taking down this _Arschloch_ was more important right now.

Without any further hesitation, she squeezed the trigger and sent the bolt flying towards Ikithon, who took the hit head on, as if it didn’t even matter. (Maybe it didn’t.)

As she loaded another bolt, she noticed that her compatriots had gotten into a fight of their own. Fjord had shed his disguise – “Really, warlock? You think I didn’t know who you were the second you stepped into my office?” – and was launching Eldrich Blasts at the man.

Jester and Beau were in combat with that lady – based on the acid splashes on the ground around them, Nott suspected that that was Astrid – and the goblin couldn’t help but smile as the cleric’s lollypop hit her round the head. She stumbled for a moment, blinking a few times, before the fighting resumed.

On her right side, Molly and Yasha were flanking a bald guy, who seemed to be a lot taller than Molly – but not as tall as Yasha. He didn’t seem to be fully human, but the few glances that Nott got of him weren’t enough to determine which race he was. He must be Eodwulf, if Nott remembered correctly.

“Nott! Pay attention!” Fjord attempted to call her back to the fight, to Ikithon, but he didn’t even seem to bother fighting back. It was almost as if he knew that their attempt would fail soon enough.

“Where’s Caleb?” She asked, not Ikithon, but the others. Fjord glanced around the room quickly – before launching two more blasts at the bearded man – and shrugged.

“Listen, Caleb comes later. If he’s not in this fight, then that’s better for all of us. Right now, we’ve gotta take down this one.” That seemed to be enough for Nott, because once again, she launched a bolt at the other.

“There’s not enough of you, Nott.” Ikithon said, as he quickly stepped out of the way of the bolt and allowed it to clatter against the wall behind him. “Both Astrid and Eodwulf are keeping your strongest warriors busy and you are only you. Do you honestly think that you’ll be able to lay a finger on me?”

Another bolt. This one hit him in the chest, right where his heart was supposed to be. He looked as if he barely felt that at all.

“Laughable attempt. You might be brave, but I’ve learned that that is just another word for _stupid._ ”

“Don’t listen to him, Nott!” Fjord launched two more Eldrich blasts at him in an attempt to distract Ikithon so that Nott could reload – which she did, of course. She was a lot less certain that this was the way to go about it, but it was the only way they had, so it wasn’t as if they had much of a choice. “You are one of the smartest people I’ve met, besides Caleb. Do not let him get into your head!”

After nodding at Fjord – she truly appreciated what he was trying to do – she readied her crossbow. However, she didn’t shoot, not yet. “Where is Caleb? What did you do to him?”

Ikithon raised an eyebrow at her, an amused smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “Are you expecting me to tell you my entire plan now?”

The goblin blinked once, a little surprised that this was a genuine question and not only a rhetoric one. “Well… Yes!”

He sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes at the pair of them. It didn’t seem as if he was that eager to indulge them, but at the same time—Nott thought they had a chance that they would be able to get them to talk. And if they knew what had gone wrong, then they would know how to solve it. “Alright.”

Nott’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, since they hadn’t expected the other to agree.

“It’s not as if you will remember it _next time_.” Wait a mo— “After that victory pit, I recognised dear old Caleb, of course. He may try to hide, but that doesn’t keep him safe from my prying eyes.” He laughed, but it was harsh. Cold. “Finding the pub you stayed at wasn’t hard. Getting into your room even less so. I may have tripped Caleb’s Alarm, but I had my spell prepared. Before he could properly wake up… Well, let’s say that I’ve got him all wrapped around my finger once again.”

“Then why are _we_ here? I doubt you transported us here with him?” Nott squinted her eyes at the war mage. “Why would you bring his friends who would do absolutely anything to get Caleb back?”

“I didn’t, that’s the beauty of it! You are just a figment of his imagination, the rebellious part of his brain that tries to fight off my spell time and time again. You aren’t _real,_ Nott. None of you are. You’re just a part of Caleb that I’ll defeat over and over again.” That cold smile from before grew into a wicked grin as he stepped closer, not in the least bit scared that Nott might actually harm him. “I have absolute control over his mind and that includes _you_. Why do you think I’ve let you come this far in the first place?”

As the goblin was about to reply, Ikithon glanced over her shoulder, his smug grin turning into something that expressed worry and concern. Nott glanced around as well, only to see that Jester and Beau had managed to take down Astrid. The woman was lying in a heap of limbs by their feet and while the cleric looked like she was ready to fight some more, Beau looked like she was about to collapse.

“Beau, how are you feeling?” Fjord called out, since he had turned around to look at her as well. (Nott glanced back at Ikithon, but the man seemed to be too surprised that Astrid was taken down in the first place.

The monk grimaced, gave the duo a thumbs up and then collapsed. She didn’t seem to be getting up again.

“Beau!” Jester had been in the middle of skipping over to Nott and Fjord when she saw the other collapse. She rushed back, already preparing a healing spell to bring their friend back from unconsciousness. Before she could, however, a familiar voice echoed through the room.

“Astrid!”

The first thought through Nott’s mind as a new figure rushed through the door and got ready to fight was _not another one._ She didn’t recognise him – maybe this one was Eodwulf? How had Caleb described him again? – but as Yasha called out the name of their friend, the rogue realised that the aasimar was right.

Caleb had joined the fight.

Nott couldn’t help but catalogue the differences between this wizard and their friend. The first notable one was the lack of Frumpkin wrapped around his shoulders or moving between his legs. The cat was nowhere to be seen and that made the goblin incredibly sad. The next was Caleb’s hair. While it was usually greasy, messy and dirty, Nott often thought to herself that it was the ideal length for him. It simply _suited_ him, more than this coifed and styled cut did. The sides of his head were shaven close to the scalp, but the hair on top was a little longer and forced into place with a gel-like substance.

The main reason why she didn’t recognise him, however, was the red uniform that he was wearing, a blue cape hanging off his shoulders. His spell books were hanging off his belt and he looked—official. Like someone Nott definitely didn’t want to meet in the street, especially not after pulling one of those cons she usually performed with _her_ Caleb.

“ _Was haben Sie getan?”_ What have you done?

The wizard rushed over to Astrid and gently took her head in his hands, positioning it until it was resting in his lap. He gently ran a hand through her hair, muttering (assumingly) calming phrases in Zemnian to her. The entire Mighty Nein who were still conscious were staring at the ginger, probably doing the same thing that Nott had just done, trying to spot the differences between _their_ Caleb and this one.

Eodwulf, who quickly realised just how distracted that everyone had become at the other wizard’s appearance, took that moment to hit Molly with a spell that Nott couldn’t entirely pinpoint. There came a surprised gasp from the blood hunter, before he as well collapsed to the ground.

Jester, who had just reached Beau and was ready to heal her, turned around just in timeto see her fellow tiefling fall. “Molly!” She turned to Beau, then back to Molly, but before she could actually heal anyone, Caleb thrust out his hand in her direction, cast magic missiles and then watched as all of them hit the blue-skinned Cleric.

As the smoke that had accompanied the missiles cleared up again, Nott realised that with that one spell, Caleb had taken out their healer. They were doomed.

“Fuck.” Fjord muttered, glancing at Yasha – who was currently raging against Eodwulf – and then turning his attention to Ikithon. “Nott, you go for Caleb. I’ll take care of this one.”

Without any hesitation, Nott nodded and rushed towards Caleb, lowering her crossbow as she did. She wouldn’t hurt him, she wasn’t going to take him down, all she would do was try to _talk_. That was the only thing that there was left for her to do, in her mind. “Caleb…” she whispered, as soon as she was within hearing range. “Caleb, it’s _us_. We’ve come to get you, we’re going to take you back to the tavern. This isn’t _you_ , my friend.”

The hate in the wizards eyes was what hit her first. It was so strong, so overwhelming that she couldn’t help but fall quiet. Maybe Ikithon was right. Maybe they didn’t have a chance to bring him back to them. Maybe Caleb was lost, once and for all.

“He warned me you would try to convince me that I was doing the wrong thing, that I am on the wrong side of all of this.” Caleb spat out those words, a fire burning in his eyes along with many strong emotions, none of them positive. “You killed _Astrid_.”

“You killed _Je—_ You know what? It doesn’t matter who killed who. All that matters is that we talk this through and explain why we’re here and—” A scream interrupted Nott’s words and as she glanced over her shoulder, she was just in time to watch Eodwulf strike Yasha with a dagger and to see the aasimar collapse on the ground.

_And then there were two._

A quick glance at Fjord told her that the half-orc wasn’t doing too well either, that he was getting close to the point of collapsing as well.

“There is no hope for you or your compatriots.” Caleb said and while there was a smug tone to the way he said it, he almost looked… _sad?_ That didn’t make any sense. Once again, Nott was distracted by this wizard in front of her, as she tried to figure out what the hell she could possibly do to get her boy back. “The Captain will take down the Warlock soon and then it’s only a matter of time before you are killed as well.”

“Caleb, _please_.” She wished that she had a spell she could use for this, one that would make him see sense in this mad situation, but she had nothing. She was just a useless rogue who had learned some spells from a friend she couldn’t even help. “You are so much stronger than this.”

“You are wrong.” He turned his attention back to Astrid, who was still lying lifelessly in his lap. “Without them, I would be weak. He’s who made me strong, who made me who I am today. Without Ikithon, I would be nothing.”

For a fraction of a second, Nott was sure that she saw doubt in Caleb’s eyes, but before she could say anything, before she could act on it, she heard the noise of armour clattering to the ground. Fjord had also fallen.

“You’re the only one left, goblin. It is much easier to surrender.” Caleb raised a hand to cast a spell once again, ready to take Nott down at the first sign that she would attack him.

“Kill her!” Ikithon yelled, but Caleb still didn’t move.

It wasn’t until Nott reached for a copper wire, which she twisted around her little finger before lifting her hand towards her mouth, that he cast the spell at the same time as Nott. The rogue’s eyes never left Caleb’s, especially not as she sent him a Message.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this.” She whispered into the wire. “You can respond to this message.”

Three missiles hit her, almost at the same time. While the first one hurt like nothing had ever before, she barely felt the second. Or the third. The world around her had already started to fade, to darken, when she was sure that she heard a whisper back.

“I’m sorry too.”

 

\--~--

 

Rolling over in her tavern bed, Nott expected to bump into Caleb. She distinctly remembered curling up with him the previous night when he had started to make those little noises that announced that he was having a nightmare. However, he didn’t seem to be there. No warm wizard, no indentation in the bed that proved that he had left her only mere seconds ago. Nothing.

The room, bereft of any signs that the wizard had ever been there, seemed colder than usual, for some reason. It was different, almost as if Caleb usually warmed up the room, just by being in it. With a confused frown on her face, she made her way over towards the door, where Molly was about to knock.

“No Caleb.” She said, before the purple tiefling could even ask for him. She had no idea why she had known that the other would be there or why she had already accepted that Caleb was gone, but it was as if she vaguely remembered something.

“We’ll bring him back to you, Nott.” Molly said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I promise.”

_I promise you, Caleb. We will get you back to us._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't intend to write this. It just sort of... happened. There are mentions of torture and death in here and while most of it is in passing, please take care of yourself. If that means not reading this, then that's the case.
> 
> There is a piece of information that doesn't get revealed until episode 49, so if you don't want to know that, this second chapter might also not be for you until you've caught up!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

After meeting up with the others, with the remainder of the Mighty Nein, everything seemed to go extremely fast. Unlike last time, this time Nott seemed to stress urgency, seemed to stress how important it was to not let them prepare themselves as they themselves did. So rather than formulate a solid plan, Nott drew on the memories that appeared to come to her from time to time – though she has no idea where they came from exactly – and within a few days, they were once again standing in front of the same Hall of Erudition.

It was almost as if nothing had changed since the last time the six of them had stood there and yet everything had.

This time, they didn’t try to convince the guards that they were there to take over their shift. This time, the guards, those same two guards, were taken care of, unceremoniously, until all that was left of them were two empty husks that once were bodies. They managed to get into the entrance hall before Astrid spotted them, a small smirk around her lips.

“You are here earlier than expected.” When she spoke, Nott could hear that same twang in her Common that Caleb used to have – _had._ The goblin hadn’t heard it before, but now it seemed to be stronger than ever before.

“Were you expecting us?” Molly asked, before answering his own question immediately. “Of course you were. You took Caleb Widogast, the most important wizard in this world. Of course you expected us to come look for him.”

“You are not the only ones who care for him.” And for a fraction of a second, Astrid seemed almost _human_. “So to keep him, we must kill you all.” But only for a fraction of a second.

The Mighty Nein attempted to start a fight, to split up the party of the four wizards – Nott had explained who they were fighting and how many there were – in the hopes of getting advantage on the fight, but the young female wizard just shook her head before cloaking herself in invisibility and disappearing.

Nott made sure to make a note of that, for the next time.

So the six of them made their way back upstairs once again, into Trent Ikithon’s lair, ready to face the lot who were keeping Caleb, _her boy_ , from all of them. They barely step over the threshold and the fight began. Trent had been even more ready for them this time than before, than the first time. Astrid – still invisible, though not for very long – and Eodwulf stood by the door, taking down Jester and Fjord before the entire group was even inside.

Being short of a healer made the fight a lot more difficult than it needed to be, since all of them had only that many wounds they could take, that much blood they could lose, before their bodies decided that it was enough, that they couldn’t take any more. In a way, Jester and Fjord were lucky, since they didn’t have to suffer any pain.

The next one to go was Eodwulf. It was Yasha, enraged by the death of her friends, who dealt the killing blow. She and Molly had been punching and slashing away at him, hoping to take him down, while Nott and Beau took care of Astrid. As the other collapsed, it didn’t take all that long for the next person to introduce himself into the fight.

Caleb.

Last to join, last to die, always. Nott still wasn’t quite sure what she’d do if he were the only one left and he would have to die. She wasn’t even sure that she would _have_ to kill him, though that idea was starting to pop up in her mind more and more as a certainty.

This time it wasn’t Astrid’s name that he yelled, but that didn’t mean it was with any less ferocity. The look in his eyes, the hatred that was burning there and eating away at him, seemed to be even stronger than it had been before. “You will pay for this.” He hissed under his breath at the four of them that remain.

Beau, already hanging on by merely a thread, collapsed before she was able to register the firebolt that was flung at her. Yasha was taken down by Trent, by that despicable man, who had tried to make the young wizards fight for him rather than get his own hands dirty. Their barbarian had tried to get him involved, but before she could even touch him, a Vicious Mockery that seemed to be stronger than anything Nott had ever seen coming from Molly hit her.

Yasha collapsed unceremoniously in a heap of limbs and braids, her two differently coloured eyes staring into nothingness.

Molly, hurting at the loss of his friends, stormed off to the archmage and managed to get at least one hit on him. He was faster than Trent had suspected, his swords sharper than expected. When that first blood had been drawn on the teacher, an intense roar had filled the room.

Caleb had kept himself apart from the fight. Apart from that firebolt that served as revenge, he hadn’t gotten involved. Instead, he had held Eodwulf, ran his hands through those short hairs on top of his head, hoping that those gestures might bring him back. However, when his teacher, when his _father-figure_ , no matter how wrong that was, was attacked, he left his friend behind and stormed at Molly.

Usually, their wizard was someone they could all easily take, especially in a one-on-one fight in melee range. There was a particular reason why they called him ‘squishy’, teasingly. This Caleb, though, was stronger and faster than Nott had ever seen before. She had already noticed that his spells were more powerful – something that filled her with pride, no matter how wrong – it really shouldn’t surprise her that there were other aspects that benefitted from the training that his body was submitted to in this lifetime.

Within a blink, Caleb was on Molly, a dagger in his hand as he went for the eyes. He might not have a blood hunter’s blood rites or a rogue’s skills with daggers, but he had been teaching himself, late at night, how to throw a dagger or two, just in case. Within seconds, Molly was gone too, his eyes nothing but two empty, red, angry sockets that were staring in a distance. Nott shivered at the sight, vowing to herself that she would _never_ forget that, no matter how long she lived.

It took her a few seconds – and the gazes of everyone trained on her – to realise she was the only one left. It was at this point that Trent spoke, tentatively. “I had expected you to take the long route again.”

“Well, maybe _this time_ I was a little more impatient to see my boy.” Nott made sure to stress the ‘this time’ in her statement, letting Ikithon know that she knew very well what he was up to. She had no idea why she was the only one who remembered, but the most important thing was that she did and that she would use any and all information she could gather to help Caleb in whatever manner she could.

“Interesting. Caleb’s will to be with you must be stronger than I anticipated. I shall make sure that is taken care of when you next return.” Trent sent her the coldest smile that he could muster – though Nott suspected that he probably thought it was genuine. “End her, Astrid. End her before she ends you.”

Nott couldn’t even glance around to face Caleb, to have one last word of communication in before she died, when the Poison Splash hit her right in the face, burning away anything and everything she could ever have used to communicate with him. It burned, it burned so badly, but not as bad as Caleb’s spell had done the last time.

When the darkness came for her this time, she gladly embraced it, knowing that she would be back, she would be able to try again when she woke up.

_I promise,_ she thought. _I will get you back to us._

\--~--

Opening her eyes, Nott could feel her skin twitch and pull more than it usually did. With a hint of a frown – she didn’t remember the acid, not yet – she pushed herself onto her feet. The knock on the door didn’t come as a surprise anymore, the memories were coming back already, and instead she rushed over to drag the tiefling inside the room.

“Whoah, don’t you think this is a little inappropriate?” Molly chuckled softly. “Is Caleb _that_ eager to see me?”

The look on Nott’s face shut him up instantly and instead he practically knelt down to cup her cheeks. The goblin tried to flinch away, but Molly wasn’t having it. “What happened to your face? Why are there--?”

That was when Nott managed to pull free from his grasp. She tried to dodge past him without giving an explanation, but the blood hunter was faster than her, just this once. “Let me go, Molly! We need to get Caleb back!”

Molly’s hand froze where it was, still not allowing the goblin girl to escape from his grasp. “What do you mean, Caleb’s gone? Where could he possibly have gone? Did he run away? Where did you get those _scars_ , you didn’t have them yesterday?”

After taking a deep breath and baring her teeth ever so slightly at him, she snapped at him: “I’ll give you all those answers once we’re with the others. So now let go of me, we need to get downstairs and start planning.”

While the blood hunter was still in disbelief, he did what Nott told him to. He followed her downstairs and the goblin couldn’t help but sigh in relief. At least she wouldn’t have to tell the story twice. Once was more than difficult enough. The questions, however, were thrown at her by all of them the moment that they arrived at the table.

“Nott, what happened to your _face_? Do you need me to heal you?”

“Is Caleb still asleep? Does he know what happened?”

“So he finally ran away, huh?”

Nott waited for those questions – and all the rest that she couldn’t understand – to die out before she sat down on one of the chairs and addressed the issue. “Caleb wasn’t there this morning because Trent’s got him.” She knew that with a certainty at this point. The exact memories might still be vague, but that much she knew the moment she opened her eyes. “He didn’t run awake, he never will, but we need to go and get him back. We’ve failed at this at least twice now, but I believe we can do it. We only have to find the right plan.”

As the goblin was speaking, Jester threw a Cure Wounds her way, hoping to heal whatever had happened to Nott’s face, no doubt, but based on the gasp that followed, the rogue was fairly sure that it didn’t succeed. Once she stopped, however, Jester was the first one to speak up: “What happened to your face?”

“I have no idea.” Nott answered honestly. “I’m fairly sure I’ll remember in a couple of days, but right now… I’m drawing a blank.”

The rest of the gang exchange looks, not sure whether they should believe Nott, why only _she_ remembered – the goblin could see it in their eyes – but eventually they nod. They are on board, as usual, and smile as reassuringly as possible.

“Well, let’s get to planning, then.”

Nott sent Fjord a small little smile in gratitude and felt her heart warm a little bit as the warlock winked back. They were going to manage it this time. This time, they’d come home with Caleb and everything would be back to normal and everyone would be happy.

_She_ would be happy again. She couldn’t lose another.

 

\--~--

 

After weeks and weeks of planning – they scoped out the Hall of Erudition, attempted to get to know as much as they could about Astrid, Eodwulf, Trent, but never anything about Caleb, to be as prepared as they could ever be – they once again found themselves getting ready to go for it. Molly’s tail twisted nervously behind him as he stepped down the stairs to where the gang was waiting for him. His heart was heavy, hurting even, from missing Caleb, but at the same time it was the lightest it had been in weeks. They had a chance, again, to get their wizard back.

_His_ wizard.

Over the course of the weeks, Molly had started to see red flashes of hair everywhere. He saw it in crowds, when they were attempting to gather some healing potions. He saw it out of the corner of his eyes when they walked into the inn where they stayed. He saw it every time he walked into his room, the one he shared with Yasha. But it was never him.

Molly was sure that he got a certain _look_ in his eyes when he thought he saw Caleb, because everything Yasha noticed, she wrapped her arms around him. She’d reassure him that they would get him back in that soft voice of hers and for a moment, the tiefling would feel better.

As they left the inn, however, he felt as nervous as he hadn’t in weeks. His hands were twitching, his tail was twisting, his eyes restlessly scanning the crowd around them. He caught Jester’s eyes, who smiled at him immediately, but Molly could see that his fellow tiefling was just as nervous as he was, maybe even _more so_.

Moving over to her side, he returned her little smile. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I will ever be!” She said, full of determination and absolutely ready to go and kick some ass. “Are _you?”_

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” While he echoed her words, Molly was sure that he lacked the conviction that Jester had. However, this didn’t stop him. He was still going to try and get back his Caleb, even if he had to die for that to happen. Again.

“Then what could possibly go wrong?” Jester skipped away to Fjord’s side before Molly could answer that, but that was probably for the best. The mere question brought up at least fifteen answers and none of them were something that he wanted to think about.

So Mollymauk Tealeaf took a deep breath and followed the rest of the Mighty Nein. Their trip through the city was fast, Nott knew the way by now, and within about ten minutes, they found themselves in front of the Hall of Erudition once again. He could hear Yasha’s gasp and couldn’t help but whisper ‘I know right?’ at her.

The look he got from her said more than enough. The aasimar was just as nervous as Molly and Jester seemed to be.

“This is going to be fine.” Molly whispered. “Nott said we’ve done this twice by now. At some point muscle memory needs to kick in, doesn’t it?”

His attempt to make a joke was clearly not all that funny, because Yasha sighed even deeper. “We also failed two times.” She said, quiet enough so that nobody but the blood hunter could hear it. “What if we fail again? What will Caleb think of us?”

That was a question that resonated within his chest and Molly didn’t know the true answer to it. He did, however, have the answer that would make them all feel better: “Caleb will be glad that we came for him, over and over again. He will feel loved and maybe he’ll finally allow us to properly love him.”

With a nod, Yasha smiled again. “Then let’s go and get Caleb.”

“Let’s go and get Caleb.”

From then on, it went mostly the same. Astrid teased them in the hall, but before a full fight could break out, she dashed upstairs again, to join the rest of Caleb’s _friends_. Once there, both Astrid and Eodwulf took down one person each in a surprise round and then the four who were left got to attempt and take care of the three of them in the room.

It was exactly the same, except not at all.

The two people who died first often varied, depending on who walked in first, but due to the nature of their group, the frontrunners were often the same. Yasha and Beau or Fjord and Molly. Jester and Nott tended to stay back, partially because they were surprisingly important or squishy. This time, however, Nott had wanted to helm the attack, so she was also one of the first to fall.

Molly didn’t even see her fall. He glanced around the room, scanning it for Caleb – even though he knew that his wizard would probably not be there yet – when he heard a surprise squeal from Nott. By the time he had turned over towards her, to where she stood, she had already been hit and was lying on the ground, motionless.

For a fraction of a second, he could imagine what rage felt like. The emotion took over his entire being, tinged his vision ever so slightly red as he stormed over towards Eodwulf, who had taken down his goblin friend. Barely registering what he was doing and what the other was doing to _him_ , he didn’t stop until he was standing over the man’s dead body. The rest of the Mighty Nein had split themselves between Astrid and Trent. At this point, Molly seemed to regain at least some of his senses, enough to at least realise that the red he saw out of the corners of his eyes was not an illusion this time.

It was Caleb.

Since both Astrid and Ikithon were sufficiently busy, Molly decided that it was his turn to attempt to take down his wizard, this time by merely talking. (The idea of having to hurt him was something that Molly couldn’t not bring himself to do, not now, not ever.) “Caleb…” He said as he stepped a little closer to him.

The Zemnian wizard didn’t look up, didn’t even seem to realise that Molly was talking to _him_.

A brief wave of that rage he had felt earlier washed over him again, enough to make him raise his voice. “Hey, I’m talking to _you_. Least you can do is actually look up at me.”

The blue eyes, those familiar blue eyes, hit him harder than Molly thought they would. For a moment, he could believe that everything was okay, that Caleb had been reading a book and had lost himself a little in its pages. “ _Ich bin nicht interessiert_.” When Molly just frowned at it, the wizard sighed and translated that brief sentence. “I’m not interested. You killed my friend, I should kill you for that.”

“That man wasn’t your friend, Caleb.” Molly huffed. “ _These people_ are your friends.” He gestured at the remnant of the Mighty Nein who were still fighting Astrid and Trent. “This is the third time we’ve come here to attempt and bring you back to reality. This isn’t _you_ , after all. Caleb, you’re under Trent’s spell.”

“You’re a liar.” Caleb said, though Molly could see the thoughts churning away inside his head, trying to process what the tiefling had told him. “I don’t know _any_ of you.”

“That is what he wants you to think. You do know all of us.” Molly stepped until he was standing next to his wizard, so that he could point at the different members of their little gang. “That’s Beau. She is a monk who pretends that she doesn’t care about anything, but I suspect that she feels her feelings on a deeper level than any of us. She’s one of your best friends.” He pointed at the blue-clad human, who was currently slamming her staff in Trent’s face. (Molly could feel Caleb tense up, but the wizard didn’t move.) “That mess of a half-orc is Fjord. He is only now starting to grow in his tusks again, but he’s our warlock and our leader, possibly, if he wants to be. He loves Jester, but is a little too scared to actually act on them.” Molly pointed at the flashes of green magic that were being thrown in Astrid’s direction from where Fjord was hiding behind cover.

“Over there is Jester.” He pointed at the blue-skinned tiefling. “She’s our cleric but she prefers to fight over healing people. That’s alright, though, she does what she has to when we’re all hurt. She is really into Fjord and is less coy about it than our warlock, but she still hasn’t made a move, no matter how much Nott tries to push them together.” At this point, Molly had ran out of people to point at who were still fighting. His heart ached a bit as he turned towards the people who had crumpled onto the floor near the door.

“Those two are our last members that aren’t you or me.” Molly tried to be as cheerful as possible as he spoke, he refused to have his sadness take over. “The white and black pile of limbs is Yasha. She’s our aasimar and our barbarian. She’s my best friend and I couldn’t imagine the world without her.” His smile froze for a moment, but Molly just took a deep breath and continued. “That small green pile of goblin is Nott. She’s—she’s _your_ best friend. You met in jail, apparently and became inseparable afterwards. I don’t pretend to know what challenges you’ve faced, what you’ve lost, what you’ve gained, but if anyone deserves better than dying in a hole like this, it’s her.”

He was quiet for a moment, debating whether he should continue introducing the rest of the Mighty Nein, or if he should stop there. He glanced at Caleb, at his wizard who was listening intently, for some reason, in the middle of this fight, and decided to keep going. “And then there is the two of us. I’m a mess of a tiefling who’s about two years old. I crawled out of the ground after dying previously. I don’t remember anything besides a circus and this small family, but they have showed that these kinds of friendships are worth fighting for.” He paused, for just a moment, a smile sent to his wizard. “And then there’s you.”

“Me?” Caleb spoke for the first time since Molly had started talking. “I’m sure that you have the wrong person.”

“Of course I don’t. You are Caleb Widogast. You are a wizard haunted by your past, but none of us really care about that. We all love you nonetheless, no matter what skeletons you have in your closets. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t, Caleb.” He could see his wizard attempt to say something else, but Molly placed his finger on his lips, stopping him from talking altogether. “And nobody here loves you more than Nott and I.”

“You have the wrong person, Mr. Mollymauk.” Caleb insisted. “I am not the man you think I am, my name is—”

“ _Molly!_ ” Beau called from the other side of the room and as the blood hunter glanced up, he realised that she looked horrible. He looked for the others, to see who could possibly help her out. It was at that point that he realised that while he had been talking to his wizard, the rest of the gang had gone down. He couldn’t see Astrid anymore, but Trent appeared to be fully involved in the fight this time. “Get your ass over here!”

The tiefling glanced over to his human wizard and sent him an apologetic look at him. “I’m sorry, I’ll get back to you on this, okay?” He leaned closer, pecked Caleb’s cheek impulsively and dashed off towards the monk who was struggling with the head wizard.

He left behind a wizard and Molly could only _hope_ that it was enough to snap him out of whatever it was. Throwing himself back in the fight, he could barely even land a hit on Trent before he watched Beau crumble and collapse onto the floor. “You’re going to pay for that, Ikithon.” He hissed under his breath, before casting one of his blood rites. He watched as Ikithon’s eyes started to bleed.

“Do you think a little blindness is going to stop me? Take him _down_ , boy!” Trent grinned, because there were two of them and only one of Molly. He couldn’t bring any of his compatriots back – he had no time to rush to Jester’s lifeless form and bring her back with one of them from her backpack – so all he could do was brace himself and hope that he could do more damage than the others.

While Trent recovered, however Caleb stepped a little closer to Molly as well, though it was with a completely different intention than the blood hunter had before. “I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry.” Before Molly could say anything else, Caleb threw a couple of firebolts at him, hitting harder than Molly expected it to.

However, once the flames subsided, he was still standing, even if only barely. “Caleb, please.” He whispered. “Don’t do it.”

“I told you, Mr. Mollymauk, you’ve got the wrong man.” Another firebolt and the world around Molly burned brightly for a moment, before he too lost consciousness.

 

\--~--

 

The next time they made it to the Hall of Erudition, Nott couldn’t help but wonder about what would be waiting for them inside. She knew, objectively, which people they would be fighting next, but every fight appeared to be different every time nonetheless. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of her friends and smiled reassuringly at them.

“This time, we’ll defeat them and bring Caleb home. This time, we’ll succeed.”

Everyone smiled back, nodding, believing not only in Nott, but in the group as an entirety. They had defeated many foes by then, Trent was merely the next one in line.

They all still died, but this time Caleb didn’t even get involved. They all died before their wizard had even entered the room. When Nott opened her eyes again the next time, she buried her face in her hands and cursed softly under her breath.

\--~--

 

The next time, Caleb was already there, downstairs, waiting for them as they arrived at the Hall of Erudition. There was a tense smile around his lips as he eyed all of them. He greeted every single one of them by their name and for a moment, Nott was convinced that they had their Caleb again, that their wizard, _her boy_ , had managed to shrug off whatever spell Ikithon had cast on him and was now waiting for them all to return.

Nothing was less true.

After having made eye contact with each and every single one of them, the Zemnian wizard held up his hands in surrender. “I know that you believe me to be your _Freund._ I know that you believe me to be one of you and that you act with the best of intentions, time and time again. We don’t want to hurt you anymore, so I am here to explain the situation, _ja?_ ”

It was Molly who stepped forward, but Nott made sure that she was standing right next to him immediately. “We _know_ we aren’t wrong, Caleb, but please, go ahead.” She gestured at him, lowering her crossbow that she had been holding. “Please explain to us how wrong we are.”

“My name isn’t Caleb Widogast. I have never met anyone called that and have no idea who might want a name like that.” The wizard explained. “My name is Bren Aldric Ermendrud, so unless you know who that is, I think it is very unlikely that I am the man you are looking for.”

After that confession, the entire group was as silent as a mouse. Nobody said a word, mostly because they were still processing what this meant. Nott specifically, since this not only meant that Caleb had been lying to her from the start, from the moment they had met. Anger coursed through her veins, threatening to take over and punch this man for lying to them, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from doing so.

She glanced up at Molly and saw hurt in his eyes, the same that she probably had reflected in hers as well. “Nott, this isn’t our Caleb. This is a secret that he should have had the chance to tell us himself.” He whispered. “It would be unfair to this version of him if you were mad at him for decisions someone else made.” He smiled for a moment, though that pain in his eyes didn’t go away just yet. “Take a deep breath, darling. Save this anger for Ikithon.”

“Now that you know the truth, will you… leave us all alone?” Caleb – she couldn’t think of him in any other way, not yet anyway – asked quietly. He had realised that his words, his confession had some massive effect on this group and wanted to go before anything could explode and make it all worse.

 “We shall return, Ca— _Bren_ , but for now, you are all safe.” Fjord said, before walking over to Molly and Nott, wrapping his arms around them and guiding them back towards the exit. The rest of the group seemed to be more willing to follow him than the two who had to be grabbed by the warlock. “We need to talk about this, but we can’t do this _here_. Not here.”

_Not here. Not yet. But soon._

 

\--~--

 

Bren knew that he should leave them be, that he should let them go and have this conversation on their own, but his curiosity was, as usual, too strong. So he sent Ikithon a quick message that he was going on a reconnaissance mission – “I shall return within a few hours, there is something I need to do.” – and trailed after the Mighty Nein as they made their way through Zadash. He knew where they were staying – Ikithon had informed him a few days ago – so that was easy enough. (He wasn’t the best at tracking, so he lost them a couple of times, but knowing what their destination was—well, it was useful.)

He watched from the other side of the street as they walked into the inn and for a moment, his heart ached, as if he _belonged_ with them. Maybe Ikithon was wrong after all. Maybe they were right in the end. He hid himself in an alley, where he quickly cast disguise self on himself so that he looked like a half-elvish man, long, dark hair, twisted back with a few simple braids. His clothes had turned dark as well, raven feathers forming the collar of his shirt.

Once Bren was content with his disguise, he stepped back into the open once again, making his way into the inn. He glanced around the moment he was inside and spotted the group in the corner, looking as if they were in the middle of an intense conversation. With as much grace as he could muster, he moved to the table next to them and listened to the different members as he tried to remain quiet.

“—hasn’t he mentioned this before to us? We’re his _friends_ , he should feel comfortable telling us these things!” The cleric called out, her accent quite strong yet so familiar.

“Clearly he doesn’t _trust us_ enough.” The monk grumbled. “Or he doesn’t think that we can keep him safe. It’s probably something stupid like that.”

“Don’t call him stupid!” For a moment, Bren couldn’t see where the squeaky voice came from, but he had heard that one before. He knew it belonged to the goblin, his supposed best friend. “Caleb is _amazing_ and I’m sure that he had a very good reason for keeping his name from us.”

“Do you actually believe that, Nott?” The monk’s cynical world view seemed to leak into the conversation. “Do you _actually_ believe that Caleb had a good reason for lying to all of us?”

The half-orc placed a hand on the goblin’s shoulder, which seemed to be enough to stop her from launching herself at the monk. (This was very quickly getting very confusing for Bren. While he might know their names and what else Trent had told him, that was about all that he knew. He didn’t have a sudden second sense about what his supposed friends were going to do, so all he could do was continue to listen.)

“Fjord, tell her that she’s _wrong!_ ” The goblin squeaked again. “Tell her that—that—that Caleb is an amazing man and—”

“You’re starting to sound like a Magic Mouth on repeat.” Fjord said quietly, in an attempt to calm her down. “Nott, we all care about Caleb a lot and we all want to believe you and _in him_ , but since he’s not here to defend himself…”

Upon realising that she wouldn’t be able to find any support with the warlock, Bren watched as Nott turned to the purple tiefling, her eyes even bigger than usual. “Molly, I’ve seen you look at him! You agree with me, right?”

That particular tiefling sighed with a flair for the dramatic. “I want to defend him, darling, but Fjord _does_ have a point. Caleb could have told us this at _any_ point during our travels together.”

The goblin jumped up onto her chair, the top of her head finally becoming visible from where Bren was sitting. “He _clearly_ doesn’t want us to know, but that’s more because he doesn’t want our view of him to change. He was so… skittish when I first met him, always glancing over his shoulder, always looking for faces in the crowd that weren’t there. Asking him might have a… regressive effect.”

The group seemed to consider this for a moment and in that silence, Bren leaned forward a little too much, causing his chair to creak quite loudly. Instantly, he turned around again, a bright blush spreading across his face – but that was luckily hidden by the spell that he had cast. The sudden movement, however, hadn’t escaped the group and most of them were now staring at him.

He expected just about anyone to talk to him. Anyone but the barbarian aasimar. “Hey… there.” She called out to him and Bren turned around, licking his lips nervously. “Is there anything we can… do for you?”

For a moment, his heart skipped a beat. He had no idea why, it wasn’t because he was scared – he could easily take her if necessary – but there was still… _something_. “Uh, I was—I was just curious, I heard you talking about losing a—a friend?”

The barbarian exchanged looks with the others, clearly already a little out of their reach. That was when Fjord took over and it seemed as natural as anything. “This was a private conversation, but _yes_. We have. Is there anything you might want to contribute, Mr…?”

His heart skipped another beat, because he hadn’t thought of a name, so he blurted out the first name that he could remember, one of those that he had read in one of his books recently. “Vax’ildan. But please, call me Vax.”

That seemed to be sufficient for now, because the entire demeanour of the group seemed to relax. They scooted over, offered him a place. (If only they knew who they were greeting into their own, if only they knew who he truly was.) Bren got up from where he had been sitting and took the place between the monk and the goblin, almost as if it was a habit for him to take that particular place.

The goblin tensed up as Bren’s cloak brushed past her and the urge to at least say something was stronger than he had expected. “I—apologise.” He whispered to her, his voice quite low and his Zemnian accent bleeding through. (He hadn’t exactly been trying to _hide_ it, but he could see that it was only now that the goblin seemed to realise how this Vax’ildan and their friend shared an accent.) “I hope you don’t find me too forward,” he raised his voice then, addressing the rest of the group as well. “But what are _your_ names?”

Glances were exchanged and there were a few seconds of silence before the first one spoke up.

“Fjord.”

“Yasha.”

“Beau.”

“Nott.”

“Molly.”

“Jester.”

“Vax’ildan.”

“We know that already.” Beau rolled her eyes at him, almost as if that was the most natural thing to do, as if they had been in each other’s presence for weeks rather than just a few minutes.

Bren smiled sheepishly. “Everyone was introducing themselves, I merely thought to pipe in.” Once again, he was fairly grateful that his embarrassed blush was hidden behind his spell. (At least he was convinced it was. The looks that the goblin was throwing in his direction made him think that maybe he wasn’t as slick as he thought.)

“So Vax,” Fjord began, the smile around his lips a little less than genuine. “What exactly can we do for you?”

Before Bren could stop himself, his mouth had already taken over control and was just _going_ for it at this point. “You mentioned a lost friend? Is Trent Ikithon involved, somehow?”

The silence that fell over the group as everyone turned to stare at him was enough to make him think that he had ruined it, that he had assumed that he knew too much. He swallowed tightly and waited for the rest to react, to _say something_ , because he was giving up on them and considering running away.

“I’m sorry, was that too much?” Bren asked again, that initial nervousness that always coursed through his veins when meeting new people suddenly very present.

Fjord was the first one who regained his tongue. He smiled, though there was still a hint of confusion visible in his eyes. “No, no, it merely took us by surprise. Did this… Ikithon, did he do something to you?”

For a moment, Bren considered telling them about what his teacher had done to him, about the scars on his arms, about the deaths of all the people that he had caused, but the thought of what Trent would do if he were to find out was enough to make him shake his head. “Not _me_ personally… But my brother, he—he was chosen? His name is Eodwulf, I’ve heard he’s done some _terrible_ things.”

Bren made sure to not tell any lies, because he didn’t want them to look any closer at his disguise, just in case they would be able to see right through it. However, that wasn’t necessary, since none of them even thought about making sure he told the truth. They seemed to believe every word that came out of his mouth the moment he mentioned his best friend’s name.

“We’ve—we’ve got a friend in a very similar situation, maybe you’ve heard of him? His name is Cal— _Bren_. Bren Al—” Fjord turned towards Nott, lowering his voice just a little to a conspiratory tone. “What was his full name again?”

“Bren Aldric Ermendrud.” The wizard replied, mostly out of habit more than anything else. As the group looked up at him in surprise, he smiled sheepishly, _again._ “I’ve heard of him. He’s the fire one, _ja_?”

He could see Beau lean closer to Yasha, who was sitting right next to her, and say something, but it was too quiet for him to actually make out what she said. The frown on Yasha’s face as she turned to look at him after caused his gut to twist and turn, so he attempted to distract all of them by offering his help. (Why was he doing this again? Why was he offering his help to a bunch of strangers who _might_ be people he knew in a different life time?)

“I have a way in, but—not the power.” He smiled, weakly. “I mean, that is quite clear, _ja?_ ”

Once again, Beau gave him a once-over, before nodding. “Alright. But _any_ funny business and I’m sticking this pole up your butt, okay?” Bren tensed up and Beau clearly considered that a win, because she grinned and continued to speak: “Yeah, I thought so.”

“I do have to—” Bren glanced at Beau once again. “It’s either now or never. I can’t wait any longer.”

Jester piped up with a bright smile slowly spreading across her face. “Let’s go then! What are we waiting for? Lead the way, Vax’ildan!” Without waiting for him to _do what she had asked him to do_ , she jumped onto his feet and started to make his way in the direction of the door of the inn.

“Jester, wait—!” Fjord was right behind her, along with most of the rest. The only one who stayed behind was Yasha, who leaned a little closer to Bren.

“I don’t know—I don’t know who you are, but I know your name isn’t Vax’ildan. If you make even a—a single wrong move against them, I’ll be right behind you with _this_.” She gestured at her sword, smiled charmingly and then followed after the rest of the Mighty Nein.

Bren took a deep breath, whispered to himself that he could do this, and made his way to the door as well, last, but not least.

 

\--~--

 

There was something slightly off about this Vax’ildan figure, Molly decided as they all left the pub in order to follow their new friend to a so-called secret entryway to Ikithon’s lair. There was something remarkably _Caleb_ about the man, something that went further than the accent and the link to someone by Trent’s side. This man reminded him of how their wizard used to be: skittish and surrounded by secrets that he just didn’t want to share.

He made eye contact with Yasha as she joined the group along with Vax and the smile around her lips told him that he was sufficiently taken care of for now. He returned that smile, before making his way over to Fjord’s side.

“So what do you think of our new stranger?” Fjord asked, clearly playing with the same worries as most of them. “Isn’t it mighty strange that he turns up at the time he did?”

Molly glanced at the man again, as subtly as he could, before nodding once. “The Zemnian accent is throwing me off.” He admitted. “It reminds me of Caleb.”

The look in the half-orc’s eyes told Molly that he wasn’t the only one who thought that, who suspected that this man might not be who he said he was. “Do you think he’s casting something magical?”

Once again, the tiefling nodded, glancing over to their cleric, who was bouncing right next to the stranger, already trying to convince him to allow her to braid his hair. (Vax’ildan didn’t seem too eager to allow her to do that. In fact, now that Molly looked a little closer, it appeared that he made sure not to make any physical contact with Jester walking next to him.) “Shall we ask Jester to Dispel some Magic?”

“That would settle a lot of doubts that are running around in my head right now.” The warlock agreed. “I would ask Yasha, but hurting him seems a step too far.”

For a moment, Molly glanced at their barbarian. “I would like to avoid that, indeed, just in case that we’re right and this _is_ Caleb. I’d rather not kill him.”

This time it was Fjord who made the noise of agreement. “I’ll talk to this ‘Vax’, you to Jester?

“Consider it done.” Molly patted Fjord’s shoulder, before walking over towards their cleric and dragging her away from the stranger. Jester immediately pulled him in for a hug as they walked away from the stranger.

“—And apparently his brother, the Eodwulf guy, felt really honoured, but the guy killed his parents? Well _their_ parents, and—” Jester was blabbering on, unaware of why Molly had pulled her aside.

However, Molly interrupted her and that was when she looked up at him with a little pout. “Do you know how to Dispel Magic? Fjord and I have been talking and we suspect… well, neither of us trust it. So prove that we _can_ and cast the spell?”

“Oh… Molly, do we have to? Can’t we just trust someone for once?” Jester clearly wasn’t convinced and looked at the raven-haired man with an _odd_ look in her eyes. “We almost never trust anyone anymore, which I get, because we keep dying here and that’s okay, but it looks like this guy is the real deal.”

The blood hunter sighed softly. “Then make sure that this is only paranoia speaking, that we don’t have anything to worry about.”

Jester sighed once again, but she knew that there was only one way to settle both his and Fjord’s worries. She forced a smile as she made her way over to Vax once again, this time with a particular purpose. It wasn’t Fjord who was walking next to him – he was walking a few feet behind the raven-haired stranger, looking for the right moment to interject – but it was Nott. The small goblin made eye contact with Jester as she arrived at Vax’ side again and frowned for a moment as she placed his hand on the new man’s shoulder.

Before Nott could ask what she was doing, however, the spell had already been cast. Molly, from his position about fifteen feet behind the rest of them, could see the black hair give way, die away as it was quickly replaced by a very familiar red-brown.

He heard Jester’s gasp of surprise as, out of the blue, it was Caleb standing there.

Caleb Widogast, even though that wasn’t his real name. Caleb Widogast, dressed in the uniform that all warmages wore. Caleb Widogast, his eyes wide as he realised his spell had dropped. Molly watched, helplessly, as the wizard grabbed something around his neck, an amulet of sorts, whispered something under his breath and, right before he disappeared from view, grabbed Nott.

A few words seem to resonate in the air, before the Mighty Nein glanced around them in a panic. “Can anyone see them?” Molly called out.

“Where did he take Nott?” Fjord shouted, hoping to get a reaction from the goblin if she were still in the same room as they were.

Beau didn’t waste any words and started to swing her staff in the area around them, hoping to hit them if it was mere invisibility.

Jester was praying to the Traveller, hoping for answers, hoping for a new (temporary) spell that would allow her to see invisibility or traces of magic.

They were all so busy with their own little tasks that none of them noticed that the front door of the inn opened and two sets of footsteps appeared in the sand right in front of the door.

 

\--~--

 

_“I’m so sorry.”_

Everything had gone so incredibly fast after that spell had fallen, after their new companion had been revealed to be on _old_ one. One moment, Nott had been talking with him amicably, the next he had grabbed her, whispered those three words in her ear and pulled her along. Hearing the others of the Mighty Nein cry out, she opened her mouth, only to feel Caleb’s hand wrap itself around her face.

_“Bitte,”_ he had whispered and he had sounded so much like her old friend that she couldn’t help but comply. She nodded briefly and soon enough, that hand disappeared as well.

She watched helplessly as the world around them didn’t seem to acknowledge them while they moved through the city, making their way back to Ikithon’s Hall of Erudition. There was definitely something odd about walking with Caleb again – he had released his grip on her to a certain extend and now they were simply holding hands – even though he wasn’t really _her friend_. She hadn’t been able to process it fully yet, so she had remained quiet, remained where she was, as they walked and walked and walked.

It wasn’t until they had reached the hall and were safely inside that he dropped whatever spell he had cast – and least he was still very clever – and turned towards her. “I’m sorry.” He whispered quietly. “I really am. For what is about to happen, for what they are going to do to you.”

She frowned at him, her eyes scanning his face in search for any sign that this was _Caleb_ standing in front of her, not Ikithon’s servant. She could see his compassion, she could see his regret and guilt burning inside him, but she could also feel a sense of compliance to the man. She could also see, very clearly, that something new appeared when another figure appeared in the entrance way.

Trent Ikithon.

“Where have you been?” He bellowed.

Before Nott could tell him that he would be okay, that there was no reason to be afraid – because she had seen _fear_ in his eyes, fear for this man – he had already turned around to face Ikithon. “I have gone to them and brought back one of their accomplices, sir.”

A smile appeared around Ikithon’s lips as he stepped over to the goblin that Caleb was still holding onto. “Interesting. I didn’t give this order.”

“I wished to see why they would claim to be this Caleb’s friend, sir. I wished to seek out who they thought most important, so that I could take them and bring them to you. They seem to be pretty powerful.” Caleb’s voice was devoid of emotion, seemed to be stating all of what he was saying as if they were unimportant.

Ikithon nodded, approvingly. He stepped closer to Caleb and ruffled the man’s hair – and Nott could see the minuscule flinch before the wizard’s mentor made contact with his head, almost as if he was expecting something very different. “This deserves a reward, Bren. This certainly deserves _something_. Why don’t you take this— _thing_ to the cells? See what information you can get out of her.”

“Sir?” Caleb seemed hesitant. “Wouldn’t Astrid enjoy this more?”

“Astrid didn’t bring home this goblin miscreant. You did.” Ikithon stepped right in front of the wizard, deliberately making eye contact with Caleb. Nott couldn’t quite see what was going on between the two of them, but any defiance that her friend had had left in him disappeared the second that Trent stepped back again. “So you will do as you are told.”

“Yes, sir.” While Caleb hadn’t been the pinnacle of emotions before, now he sounded as if he was absolutely lacking in them. Turning back to Nott and grabbing her in a much rougher fashion than earlier, there was now no more trace left of that regret or guilt, let alone that fear, that had coursed through him before. His pace was too fast for her to follow, so she ended up being dragged along as the pair of them made their way down some stairs – that’d cause her to end up with more than just once bruise – to the cells.

Upon being thrown in – and landing quite harshly on the ground, earning her even _more_ bruises – Nott instantly turned around and glanced up at her friend. Caleb was towering over her at this point, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “There are two ways this can go: either you tell me everything now, without any protests, or I get to play around. Either way, at the end of the day, I will know everything you do.”

“Caleb please, don’t do—” Nott couldn’t even finish her sentence or he had already slapped her.

“You don’t speak unless spoken to.” The coldness in his voice made it suddenly very clear to her that Caleb – Bren, whoever – had been right. He was no longer their friend. This was a man, manipulated by a bad person, into doing whatever they wanted. While this also meant that she had been right, that it hadn’t been Caleb’s fault, that didn’t make this realisation any easier.

“What—what would you like to know?” She said, deciding to make this as easy on the both of them as possible.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Caleb grinned, before he got to work.

 

\--~--

 

The moment that the entire party settled on the fact that both Caleb and Nott had disappeared, dread settled in Molly’s stomach. Rationally, he knew that only one place would make sense for Ca— _Bren_ to go to, but his brain wasn’t really cooperating. It kept showing him images of Nott, dead and thrown in a pile with Caleb’s broken body, of Nott, cuffed in a cell with Caleb standing over her, of Caleb, curled up in a corner of a bedroom that appeared to be his, sobbing as quietly as he could.

Once again, he knew that this was his brain being irrational, that he shouldn’t pay attention to these images, that he should be running towards the Hall of Erudition in the hopes to catch Caleb and Nott before they entered. His body, however, decided that these images were the truth, and Molly started trembling at the thought that Caleb, _his Caleb_ , could be hurting Nott or crying in a room somewhere.

Unable to move much further than just a few steps, he glanced at the others, hoping that they were able to shake these thoughts – if they even had them at all. Beau seemed to be unaffected. She had picked up a chair at this point and was swinging it around, convinced that the disappearance had something to do with it. Fjord seemed to be attempting to tell her that it was just a simple chair, nothing more. Jester… well, Jester was trying her hardest to hide just how upset she was over her friend’s disappearance, but Molly could already see some determination to use her detective skills and find Nott again.

Yasha’s attention, however, was turned on him. She was the one who noticed looked at him and noticed just how much he was trembling. She made her way over towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder, her support quiet but very present. Molly glanced up at her and immediately realised that she was just as nervous and shocked about the entire thing as he was.

“It will—it will be fine, Molly.” She whispered quietly, before glancing at the rest of the Nein again. They were still very much doing the same thing as they had a few seconds ago. “We are five and—we’ll find a way to get Nott and Caleb back.”

“I hope so.” The blood hunter whispered back. “I just want Caleb and Nott back and put this all behind us. Is that too much to ask?”

Before Yasha could say anything as an answer to that, Jester came storming over to the pair of them. (This made Yasha pull her hand back real quickly, but the cleric didn’t seem to notice at all.) “It’s time for operation _Look for Caleb and Nott!”_ While she was usually endearing, there was something about her that seemed a little off. However, Molly decided not to read into it.

“How does this operation start, darling?” Molly raised an eyebrow, though he was already very much on board.

“We go to the Hall of Erudition and demand our friends back, duh!” Jester huffed, as if that wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world.

“Shouldn’t we try to at least attempt to split Astrid and Eodwulf from Trent and— well, Bren, Caleb, whatever name he goes by?” Fjord’s worry was clearly hidden underneath a veil of nonchalance, but none of the other party members remarked anything about it.

Molly nodded, vaguely remembering Nott telling him that they had always had their ass kicked in the past, when they had tried in previous ‘loops’, as Ikithon had apparently called it. (He had no idea why _Nott_ was special enough to remember, but decided that that didn’t matter right now. They needed to focus on Caleb and their goblin friend and get them back and then they could voice their worries.

“How will be able to draw them out?” Yasha asked. “We can’t just really say ‘hey, please come down here, so we can kick your ass and kill your boss and-and-and friend.”

The five of them were quiet for a moment as they tried to think of that. Quickly distracted, however, Molly instead spent that time glancing at them, hoping to see an idea spawn in his friends’ heads. By doing so, he almost missed his own idea: “What if we tell them that we’ve got proof that Ikithon is a bad man? That he’s only using them?”

“What if they bring Caleb along, then? We can’t take the three of them on. We can’t—I don’t want to kill Cay-leb.” Jester bit her lip nervously, before glancing at the tiefling. “I like the idea, Molly, but how will we keep Caleb safe?”

“We’ll figure it out, Jester.” Fjord said, stepping closer to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “I promise you that we’ll find a way to save Caleb, to get him safe and out of here.”

The cleric leaned into the warlock’s touch, clearly a little more at ease with the entire situation. (If they got out of here, Molly told himself that he’d have to ask the both of them what exactly was going on between the two of them. At least, that was if they got out of wherever they had ended up.)

Molly took a deep breath, bracing himself, before making his way towards the door of the inn. The rest of the party was following, he could feel their presence behind them, as he lead the charge on the Hall of Erudition, hopefully for the very last time. (He wanted Caleb back. Caleb and Nott and just a peaceful evening of rest.)

 

_\--~--_

Surprisingly enough – none of them had seen this coming – both Astrid and Eodwulf were waiting for them to arrive. The girl was leaning against the door, her arms crossed as she glanced at her male companion. The latter was sitting on the ground right next to her, playing with some rocks, turning them red, then white, then blue, then purple. As he spotted Molly, who was already storming towards the pair of them, he lazily flicked the stones at them.

One of them hit Molly right between the eyes and while it was nowhere close enough to knock him out, the headache that it gave him was quite impressive. Rubbing his forehead, he got one of his scimitars out of its sheath. “And here we thought it would be _difficult_ to get you on your own.” He said, stepping forwards as he braced himself for the first fight of the evening. “Guess we were wrong.”

Astrid glanced up once, still looking as bored as she had before, and flicked her wrist in Yasha’s direction. A green ray shot out of her finger, hitting their barbarian full force. For a moment, it seemed like she was about to shrug it off, but then a green-ish hue spread across her face. Molly was about to run into her direction when he realised that Jester was already doing the same, preparing a spell to undo whatever effect the female had brought upon their friend.

The blood hunter instead turned himself towards Eodwulf, drawing his second sword as he ran towards him. He quickly cut himself, activating one of his rites on his swords, before attacking him twice. The first attack had taken him quite by surprise, but the second one missed him as Eodwulf deftly dodged out of the way. “You really shouldn’t have done that.” He growled at the blood hunter, before starting to mutter some words under his breath.

Before he could finish it, one of Fjord’s Eldritch Blasts hit him square in the chest, causing Eodwulf to stumble back a little. With a glare at the half-orc, he instead cast another spell, pointing at a small creature behind them, which had been hidden from view up until now. The creature, which had been unmoving until the spell that Eodwulf had cast had hit it, pushed herself onto her feet, revealing to the party exactly who she was.

“Nott!” Fjord gasped.

And indeed, it was Nott who had joined the battlefield, but the little goblin lady didn’t look anything like how she used to look: there were cuts and bruises everywhere on her small body, including some burn marks here and there. It almost looked as if someone had tortured her, killed her and then allowed Eodwulf to make her his plaything.

“What have you _done_?” Molly snarled at the apparent necromancer, his exclamation accompanied by another attack, which Nott caught for the other.

“Me? I didn’t do _anything_. Bren, however, or—no, you know him as _Caleb_ , don’t you? Well, he had some fun with her and got quite a lot of information about all of you.” Eodwulf pushed Nott aside and placed his hands on the blood hunter’s shoulders. “For instance, ‘your’ wizard is your weakness. You’d do anything for Caleb, even if that means costing your life.”

“Stop it.” Molly growled.

“You are all too caring, Mollymauk Tealeaf. That is what will kill you in the end.” Eodwulf patted the blood hunter’s shoulders, before stepping back once again. “You should step back, since there is absolutely no way that you will win this fight.”

“You know what, asshole?” Molly closed the distance that the other had created. “You are wrong. That is what makes us _that much stronger_. Mighty Nein, are you ready to kick their ass?”

With a shout like one, they all charged the three enemies that presented themselves (no matter how much they feared hurting Nott). Soon, the Eldritch Blasts were flying around, as well as Guiding Bolts, slashes of scimitars and before any of them were aware of what had happened there were three bodies at their feet. Astrid and Eodwulf, none of them really grieved for, but Nott… Well, all of them took a moment to say goodbye to a good friend.

“She was one of the best of us.” Fjord said quietly. “She deserved so much better than this.”

Agreeing noises came from everyone around him, most of all Molly. He couldn’t stand seeing that small body laying there, used and beaten before they had even laid a finger on her. “If I could turn back time, I would save her, would pull her away from Caleb.”

“There’s nothing you could have done, Molly.” Jester said quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder, just like Eodwulf had. (The blood hunter tried not to flinch.)

“I know.” He sighed. “But I still should have tried.”

For a moment, they stood there, in silence, before Beau cleared her throat. “Right, let’s get in there, shall we? We’ve got to take care of Ikithon and get Caleb back.”

Once again, a cry of agreement came from all of them, before they made their way inside the building, making their way up to the room where Ikithon was probably hiding. This time, however, it felt wrong. Not only were they lacking Caleb, but Nott was now also lying outside, her heart no longer beating. The mood was much heavier, but the moment they laid eyes on the captain that changed to grim determination.

“Ah, you finally made it.” Ikithon grinned, though he did glance over their shoulders, looking for either Astrid of Eodwulf to be accompanying them. When he spotted neither, he raised an eyebrow. “And you seem to have made come-uppance with my two students. Congratulations. That’s the furthest you’ve ever come.”

“We’re going to take you down, Ikithon. You no longer have your goon squad to hide behind.” Fjord, always the one to speak first, always the one to fight with all his might for these friends that had become more like family now. “Just hand over Caleb and we won’t have to fight you.”

Ikithon laughed and it was the most unsettling noise that any of them had ever heard. “I love how you think you can take me on. How I will actually have to think about this option you’re giving me – or you _think_ you are anyway. Bren will remain by my side, right where he belongs. And unless you turn around right now, you’re going to end up like your little goblin buddy – adorable that you think that she can actually be a _friend_ , by the by.”

“Well, we gave you a choice.” Molly smirked a little, before raising his scimitar once again. “Let’s get weird.” He raised his free hand and pointed at their enemy, casting Blood Curse of the Eyeless. For a moment, he feared that it wasn’t going to work, that it wasn’t going to take hold, but then the man’s eyes turned black.

The second that happened, multiple spells hit the captain, as well as a quarterstaff. It wasn’t enough to actually take him down – no matter how much they tried – but Ikithon wasn’t smiling anymore, which Molly considered a start. Before he could recover his sight, he attacked with his scimitar, once, twice, then darting back so that the others could cast their spells without harming him.

Another round of blindness however, that was too much to ask. Trent recovered his sight just in time to spot Bren running into the room. Everyone looked up and for a moment, there was silence.

Caleb had once again joined the fight.

A fireball was sent their way and no matter how much they attempted to dodge it, all of them took quite a lot of damage. Out of the corners of his eyes, Molly could see that Jester didn’t look good – the previous fight had taken a lot out of her – but it wasn’t enough to force her to stay down. With another cry, she launched her duplicate at Caleb, touching him through that and casting a spell on him. Even from where he was standing, Molly could see new wounds appear on Caleb’s arms, face, chest—with just one touch, he looked a lot less sure of himself than before.

For a moment, it seemed that Caleb was going to crumble, topple over, but no, he recovered and launched a few more spells at the Nein. Now divided between the two of them, the remaining five split their forces between them: Molly and Fjord focussed on Caleb, while the other three turned their attention to Trent.µµ

The blood hunter wanted nothing more than to talk to his wizard, but he realised that the moment had passed. With every Eldritch Blast that Caleb was hit with, every scimitar that cut through him, the man looked worse and worse, until he collapsed onto his knees.

“Please.” He muttered, glancing up at Molly, who suddenly seemed unable to move. Those blue piercing eyes, that one word… It was enough to stop him from doing anything. “I’m sorry, I will stop. Please don’t—please don’t hurt me.”

Molly stepped a little closer, but before he could do anything about it, a last spell was sent from Fjord. Everything seemed to slow down for a moment as the green light that he had seen so many times hid Caleb square in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground, unmoving.

Someone was screaming around him and it took Molly a few seconds to realise that it was him, that _he_ was screaming as Caleb’s last breath seemed to leave his body. He moved closer to the body, tears running down his cheeks and while he thought that the world was becoming blurry because of the tears, nothing was truer.

There was a moment of blurriness, before the world turned black.

 

\--~--

 

He was in the middle of casting Fireball as he realised just exactly who he was aiming at. Molly. His wonderful Molly, who seemed genuinely scared of him. Caleb lowered his hand, before he glanced around, checking out who he was standing with. Imagine the surprise as he saw Trent standing there, a confident smirk around his lips. It was almost as if he _knew_ that he had the advantage on his friends.

Instantly, he changed his target of the spell that he had been casting. As that Fireball hit Ikithon, Caleb could enjoy the pleasure of seeing confusion flash across the man’s face, before he finally stopped moving. However, the wizard got hit by the lash-back of his own spell, but he didn’t care. He could die right now and be content.

At least his friends were safe from the likes of Trent.

With a hint of a smile around his lips, he glanced at Molly once more, before he too collapsed onto the ground.

 

\--~--

 

“Cay-leb?

The first thing the wizard became aware of was Jester hovering over him, her holy symbol glowing brightly. As she realised his eyes were open, a bright smile spread across his face.

“He’s awake!” She proclaimed, before disappearing from Caleb’s view again. He tried to push himself up, but he felt absolutely exhausted – maybe even _too_ exhausted to just sit up. Before he could move, however, there was Nott, placing a hand on his shoulder and pushing him down.

“No. No moving. Yasha will carry you back to the inn and you are going to sleep for over twelve hours before I even _consider_ you ready to even read.” The goblin said, sternly. Caleb could see the relief in her eyes, though, that he was awake again, that whatever spell Ikithon had cast on him was over now. “Welcome back, Caleb.”

“It’s good to be back.” Caleb whispered, before his attention was dragged away from his best friend and instead to a purple tiefling with a tabby cat in his hands. “Do you mind—?”

Nott glanced over her shoulder, eyed the tiefling up and down, and then nodded. “I’ll talk to you later.”

The moment that Molly came close enough, Frumpkin jumped out of his arms and curled up around Caleb’s neck. The purring was instant, especially as one of Caleb’s hands moved up to scratch his familiar under his chin. “Ah, _Liebling. Ich habe dich vermisst.” I missed you._

“Welcome back to the world of the living, Mr. Caleb.” The blood hunter looked just as happy as the wizard felt to see him again. “How are you feeling?”

“Like everything is going to explode inside my head.” Caleb whispered. “Did I—Did I hurt you?”

“You most certainly _tried_.” Molly laughed. “But Ikithon did most of the damage.”

“Good… Good, _ja_.” Caleb sighed, before grabbing one of Molly’s lapels and pulling him closer, slowly, giving Frumpkin more than enough time to jump away. “ _Ich_ … I realised something, Mr. Mollymauk.” Before the other could say anything, the wizard gently kissed him. It was slow and hesitant at first, but as Molly returned the kiss, things got a little more… heated.

“Finally.” Beau grumbled. “About _time_.”

At that, Molly pulled back – Caleb didn’t _attempt to pull him into his embrace again_ , of course not – and gave their monk the middle finger, before bursting out in laughter. Beau grinned as well, before walking over to Fjord and disappearing from the wizard’s field of view.

“It _is_ about time, though.” Molly whispered quietly, and Caleb couldn’t help but laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy ending!
> 
> I was really tempted to just make this end up in the worst way that it possibly could, but... y'know. Widomauk deserve some happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out longer than I thought it would. Constructive feedback is always welcomed, of course.
> 
> Next time, I'm going to write something with Frumpkin in there. Next time.


End file.
